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HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN,  AND  COMPANY, 
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THE  CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

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THE 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 


BT 

LYliAN  ABBOTT 

It 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

(^fjt  fHiiizt^t^z  ptt^^y  Cambndge 

1905 


COPYRIGHT  1905  BY  LYMAN  ABBOTT 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


Published  May  iqos 


To  the  Christian  Ministers  who  are 
attempting  to  impart  that  acquaint- 
ance with  God  which  is  the  secret 
of  life  this  volume  is  dedicated. 


182155 


.11.1  i- 


OF  THl 


r 

lUNIVERSiTY 


PKEFACE 


Ministers  in  their  conventions  often  discuss  the 
question  why  people  do  not  go  to  church.  It  would 
be  well  if  sometimes  they  would  consider  the  ques- 
tion, Why  do  any  people  ever  go  to  church  ?  for  the 
phenomenon  of  church-going  is  a  remarkable  one. 

In  the  fall  of  1903  a  careful  census  was  taken 
of  the  attendance  upon  church  services  in  the  Bor- 
ough of  Manhattan,  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
Borough  was  divided  into  four  districts,  and  the 
numbers  in  actual  attendance  upon  the  churches, 
liberal  and  conservative,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
were  carefully  counted.  Fortunately  the  four  Sun- 
days devoted  to  this  census  were  pleasant  Simdays, 
so  that  the  conditions  were  favorable  to  a  good 
attendance.  The  census  was  taken  with  care  and 
the  results  tabulated.  They  showed  that  about  one 
half  the  adult  population  of  the  island  of  Man- 
hattan were  in  the  churches  on  those  Sundays.  No 
estimate  was  made  of  the  children  in  attendance 
upon  the  Sunday-schools.  In  considering  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  census,  it  must  be  remembered,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  every  person  in  attendance  upon 


▼iii  PREFACE 

every  service  was  counted,  so  tliat  any  person  who 
attended  church  twice  on  that  day  was  counted  as 
two  persons ;  on  the  other  hand,  that  those  accus- 
tomed to  attend  church  who  were  absent  on  the 
day  the  count  was  made,  those  who  do  business  in 
New  York  and  live  in  the  suburbs,  and  the  Jews, 
of  whom  there  are  six  hundred  thousand  resident 
in  the  island  of  Manhattan,  were  not  included  in 
the  census.  Making  due  allowance  for  these  facts, 
it  is  probably  fair  to  say  that,  approximately,  haK 
the  population  of  the  island,  above  school  age,  are 
accustomed  to  take  part  in  some  form  of  religious 
service  every  week.  A  little  subsequently,  a  more 
careful  census  of  church  attendance  was  made  in 
the  city  of  London.  A  careful  estimate  of  those 
who  attended  two  services  was  included  in  this 
census.  The  result  showed  that,  making  allowance 
for  those  too  old,  too  young,  too  sick,  and  too  busy, 
—  that  is,  in  unavoidable  occupations,  —  and  not 
counting  twice  those  who  attended  twice,  one  third 
of  the  population  who  can  attend  public  worship 
in  London  on  Sunday  do  attend.  These  facts  are 
typical.  In  all  ages  of  the  world,  among  all  races 
of  mankind,  attendance  upon  some  form  of  reli- 
gious service  is  customary.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  mention  any  other  custom  so  general. 


PREFACE  ix 

What  is  the  motive  that  brings  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  the  human  race  for  a  certain  allotted 
time  every  week  into  their  varioas  temples,  syna- 
gogues, and  churches?  The  city  of  New  York 
maybe  not  inaptly  termed  the  Corinth  of  America. 
Both  its  virtues  and  its  vices  are  those  of  a  com- 
mercial metropolis..  Its  inhabitants  through  six 
days  in  the  week  are  eager  in  their  pursuit  of 
wealth.  They  jostle  one  another  in  the  cars  and 
upon  the  sidewalk;  they  travel  wearisomely  an 
hour  or  two  every  day  from  their  homes  to  their 
places  of  business  and  back  again;  they  work 
often  in  dingy  rooms  and  under  disagreeable  condi- 
tions ;  they  sacrifice  for  this  pursuit  pleasure,  edu- 
cation, domestic  affection,  health,  and  life  itself; 
and  yet  once  a  week  stores  and  offices  are  closed, 
the  process  of  money-getting  halts,  the  throngs  lay 
aside  for  a  day  their  commercial  pursuits,  and 
something  like  one  half  of  them  assemble  in  their 
churches.  For  what  purpose?  It  is  idle  to  say 
that  this  is  a  fashion.  How  came  the  fashion  to 
be  set?  Or  that  it  is  a  habit.  What  has  caused 
the  habit  ?  They  are  not  attracted  by  the  music : 
they  can  get  better  music  in  the  concert-rooms ; 
nor  by  the  oratory :  for  few  of  the  preachers  are 
orators;    nor  by  the  social  advantages:   for  the 


X  PREFACE 

city  churcli  is  rarely  a  social  club,  and  never  a 
successful  one. 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  furnish  some  answer 
to  this  question ;  to  indicate  to  priests  and  preach- 
ers what  it  is  which  induces  half  the  population  of 
New  York  city  to  lay  aside  their  commercial  pur- 
suits and  gather  in  their  churches  every  seventh 
day ;  to  interpret  to  themselves  the  men  and  women 
who  form  these  congregations,  and  explain  to  them 
what  it  is  that  they  are  often  unconsciously  seeking ; 
and  to  indicate  to  those  who  rarely  or  never  do  go 
to  church  the  advantage  which  they  might  secure  if 
they  were  in  this  respect  to  conform  to  the  custom, 
not  only  of  their  fellow  countrymen  in  America, 
but  of  their  fellow  men  throughout  the  world. 

The  Christian  minister  fulfills  a  fourfold  func- 
tion :  he  is  pastor,  administrator,  priest,  and  prophet^ 
or  preacher.  As  pastor,  he  is  the  personal  friend 
and  counselor  of  his  people ;  as  administrator,  the 
executive  head  of  his  church,  which  should  be  his 
force  as  well  as  his  field.  These  two  aspects  of  his 
work  are  not  considered  in  this  vd^umej  it  js  de-_ 
-^  votedjexclusively  to  a^onsideration  of  the  minister 
as  priest  and  prophet. 

In  the  fall  of  1903  I  gave  the  Lyman  Beecher 
course  of  lectures  before  the  Yale  Theological  Sem- 


PREFACE  xi 

inary,  at  New  Haven,  and  in  March,  1904,  the  Earl 
course  of  lectures  before  the  Pacific  Theological 
Seminary,  at  Berkeley,  Califomia.  While  this  book 
is  not  a  reproduction  of  either  course  of  lectures, 
both  of  which  were  given  extemporaneously,  the 
material  of  which  those  lectures  was  composed  has 
been  freely  used  in, the  composition  of  this  volume, 
as  has  also  some  other  material  contributed  by  me 
at  different  times  to  periodical  publications  or  used 
in  public  and  pubHshed  addresses. 

Lyman  Abbott. 

CORNWALL-ON-THE-HUDSON,  N.  Y., 

December,  1904. 


CONTENTS 

FA08 

I.  The  Fundamental  Faiths  of  the  Ministry 

Necessity  of  Fundamental  Faiths 1 

Keligion  defined 3 

What  these  Definitions  imply 4 

DifEerent  Types  of  Religion 7 

The  Christian  Religion  defined 9 

The  Distinctive  Feature  of  Christianity   ....  10 

The  Hebrews'  Golden  Age 13 

Christ's  Definition  of  His  Mission 14 

The  Message  of  the  Apostles 17 

Meaning  of  the  Incarnation 19 

The  Post-Resurrection  Life  of  Christ 20 

Christianity  a  New  Theology 22 

Christianity  a  New  Life 25 

The  Christian  Ministry  a  Ministry  of  Christian  Re- 
demption  27 

Doubts  in  Faith 28 

Christianity  answers  the  Question  of  Paganism     .  31 
The  Secret  of  the  Church's  Power 32 

11.  The  Function  of  the  Ministry 

Is  there  any  Need  of  the  Church  ? 35 

The  Answer  of  the  Irreligious 35 

Of  the  Agnostic 36 

Of  the  Skeptic 36 

Of  the  Humanitarian 37 

Of  the  Self-Satisfied 39 

Of  the  Social  Reformer 40 

The  Early  Church  as  an  Administrator  of  Charity  42 
Other  Organizations  have  taken  its  Place     ...  44 


xiv  CONTENTS 

The   Inspirational  rather  than  the  Institutional 

Church  the  Need  of  our  Time 46 

The  Early  Church  as  a  Political  Power  ....  47 
Three  Stages  in  the  Political  Development  of  the 

Church 48 

The  Political  Function  of  the  Modern  Church  .     .  60 
Difference    between   Minister    and   Political    Re- 
former      51 

The  Early  Church  as  an  Educator 54 

Boman  Catholic  Testimony  respecting  Educational 

Function  of  the  Church 65 

Public  Schools  Preferable  to  Church  Schools    .     .  57 

Defect  in  our  Public  Schools 58 

Educational  Function  of  Modern  Church      ...  60 
The  Fundamental  Work  of  the  Church    .     .     .     .61 

The  Message  of  the  Church 62 

Man's  Desire  for  Peace 63 

Man's  Desire  for  Power 64 

The  Church's  Ministry  of  Peace 67 

The  Church's  Ministry  of  Power 68 

This  Twofold  Ministry  illustrated  by  the  "High 

Church  Movement 70 

By  the  Work  of  Dwight  L.  Moody   ....  73 
The  Church  must  speak  with  Authority  ....  74 

III.  The  Authority  of  the  Ministry 

The  Authority  of  the  Hebrew  Prophets    ....  76 

Not  derived  from  the  Bible 77 

Nor  from  the  Church 78 

Nor  from  the  Reason 78 

Nor  from  Miracles 79 

Nor  from  Fulfillment  of  Prophecy    ....  79 

Spiritual  Authority  defined  by  Canon  Liddon   .     .  79 

Analyzed  by  St.  Paul 81 

Analyzed  by  T.  H.  Huxley 83 

The  Response  of  the  Soul  to  Ethical  Principles  .  84 
To  Spiritual  Truths 85 


CONTENTS  XV 

Blustrated  by  W.  K.  ClifPord 86 

Illustrated  by  Herbert  Spencer     ....     87 

Illustrated  by  Phillips  Brooks 88 

Illustrated  by  Charles  Dickens  ....  89 
The  Foundation  of  Religious  Authority  .  .  .  91 
The  Ecclesiastical  Conception  of  the  Authority 

of  the  Church 92 

The   Spiritual  Conception  of  the  Authority  of 

the  Church 93 

The  Ecclesiastical  Conception  of  the  Authority 

of  the  Bible 96 

The  Spiritual  Conception  of  the  Authority  of  the 

Bible 99 

The  Radical  Difference  between  the  Two  Con- 
ceptions      100 

The  Limits  of  Biblical  Authority 102 

The  Authority  of  the  Reason 103 

Necessity  for  Clear  Definition  of  the  Nature  and 
Limits  of  Ministerial  Authority 105 

IV.  The  Individual  Message  of  the  Ministry 

The  Prophet  defined 108 

The  Minister  differs  from  the  Journalist  .     .     .  109 

Preaching  on  Current  Events 110 

The  Minister  differs  from  the  Author  ....  112 
Power  of  the  Sermon  is  in  Preacher's  Personal- 
ity     113 

Attempt  to  preach  Great  Sermons  a  Weakness  114 
The  Minister  differs  from  the  Teacher      .     .     .  114 

In  their  Respective  Objects 115 

In  the  Secret  of  their  Power 117 

The  Minister  differs  from  the  Moral  Reformer    118 

The  Difference  defined 119 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  on  the  Preacher  as  Moral 

Reformer 120 

The  Minister  differs  from  the  Teacher  of  Theo- 
logy       121 


xvi  CONTENTS 

The  Importance  of  Creeds 121 

Theology  is  not  Religion 122 

Sermon  not  a  Lecture  on  Theology 123 

The  Use  and  Abuse  of  Biblical  Criticism  in  the 

Pulpit 125 

Dealing  with  Doubts 127 

The   Function  of  the   Christian  Ministry  sum- 
marized    129 

V.  The  Social  Message  of  the  Ministry 

The  Kingdom  of  God 132 

Three  Ideas  respecting  the  Kingdom  of  God  .  .  134 
The  Return  to  Christ's  Teaching  concerning  the 

Kingdom 136 

Social  Meaning  of  Theological  Terms    ....  137 

Social  Revelation 137 

Social  Redemption 141 

Social  Regeneration 143 

Social  Atonement 148 

Social  Sacrifice 153 

Importance  of  Social  Message  in  our  Time  .  .  155 
That   Importance  emphasized    by  our  National 

History 158 

The  Duty  of  the   Christian  Church  concerning 

Social  Problems 159 

Bible  Instruction  concerning  the  Laws  of  Social 
Life 164 

VI.  The  Minister  as  Priest 

Priests  and  Prophets  :  Their  DiflPerent  Func- 
tions  166 

Importance  of  Devotional  Meetings 169 

Their  Distinctive  Character  170 

The  Lord's  Supper  :  Its  Threefold  Character  .  174 
The  Devotional  Element  in  Church  Services  .  .  176 
The  Devotional  Reading  of  Scripture  .  .  .  .178 
The  Musical  Service 179 


CONTENTS  xvu 

Public  Prayer 181 

Preparation  for  Public  Prayer 186 

Relative  Advantages  of  Liturgical  and  Non-Lit- 
urgical Services 188 

Testimony  of  Dr.  Bainsford 190 

Of  Canon  Liddon 190 

Of  Henry  Ward  Beechep 193 

Intercessory  Prayer 194 

Vn.  Qualifications  for  the  Ministry 

The  Minister  must  possess  Spiritual  Life  .     .     .  198 

And  Power  to  express  it 201 

Therefore  a  Definite  Purpose 201 

The  Absorbing  Passion  of  His  Life 204 

The  Power  of  His  Personality 205 

Object  more  Important  than  Subject  in  Sermon  208 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Testimony 208 

Difference  between  Sermon  and  Essay      .     .     .  210 

Length  of  Sermon 213 

Necessity  for  Careful  Preparation 215 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Method 216 

Phillips  Brooks's  Method 217 

Candor  and  Courage 219 

Bespect  for  the  Opinions  of  Others 220 

Difdculties  to  be  overcome 221 

Hopefulness  and  Patience 223 

Ministerial  Studies  :  Human  Nature     ....  226 

The  Bible .  227 

Acquaintance  with  God 228 

Value  of  Meditation 229 

Vin.   Some  Ministers  op  the  Olden  Time 

The  Hebrew  Prophets 231 

They  claimed  to  speak  for  God 233 

But  do  not  claim  Superiority  to  Others     .     .     .  236 

How  their  Visions  came  to  them 237 

Not  Mere  Messengers 240 


xviii  CONTENTS 

Individuality  of  their  Messages 242 

The  Source  of  their  Power 243 

Both  Idealists  and  Practical  Men 246 

Dramatic  Character  of  their  teachings ....  248 

Forthtellers  and  Foretellers 261 

Hopefulness  and  Courage 251 

Every  True  Minister  a  Successor  of  the  Pro- 
phets      262 

IX.  The  Ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  :    His  Methods 

The  Testimony  of  Ernest  Benan  and  Goldwin 

Smith 254 

The  Interpretation  of  Jesus  Christ  necessarily 

Inadequate 255 

Christ's  Power  not  Dependent  on  Dramatic  Ef- 
fects       257 

Nor  on  Oratorical  Splendor 258 

Nor  on  Dialectical  Skill 259 

Christ's  Teaching  generally  Conversational  .     .  260 

Dealt  with  Great  Problems 260 

Was  Systematic 262 

Abounds  in  Seed  Thoughts 266 

Aphoristic  Style 267 

Christ's  Industry 268 

His  Unconventional  Methods 269 

His  Message  Expression  of  His  Life     ....  270 

Therefore  exemplified  by  His  Life 271 

His  Heroism 272 

His  Hours  of  Demotion 273 

X.  The  Ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  :  The  Substance  of 

His  Teaching 

Early  Formulation  of  Christ's  Teaching    .     .     .  275 

His  Teaching  Vital  and  Practical 276 

Sensuality  of  Roman  Empire 277 

First  Century  Reformers 278 

Modern  Parallels 279 


CONTENTS  xix 

Christ's  Use  of  the  World 280 

Christ's  Indifference  to  the  World 282 

Things  for  Men,  not  Men  for  Things      ....  284 
Three   Conceptions   respecting   our   Relation  to 

the  World 286 

Fundamental  Teaching  of  Hebrew  Prophets  Re- 
specting Righteousness 288 

Christ's  Teaching  respecting  Righteousness    .     .  289 
Christ's  Example  respecting  Righteousness     .     .  291 

Christ's  Doctrine  of  Brotherhood 292 

Standard  of  Honesty 293 

Doctrine  of  Property 295 

Doctrine  of  Service 297 

Principle  of  Reform 298 

His  New  Commandment 299 

Different  Conceptions  concerning  our  Relations 

to  God 300 

The  Hebrew  Conception 302 

Jesus  Christ's  Acquaintance  with  the  Father  .     .  303 
His  Teaching  concerning  our  Acquaintance  with 

the  Father 303 

Hopefulness  of  Christ's  Teaching 307 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  has  come 308 

Obstacles  to  the  Kingdom  of  God 310 

Seeming  Absence  of  God 313 

Personal  Immortality 315 

The  Necessary  Endowment  of  a  Christian  Minis- 
ter      316 


THE  CHEISTIAK  MmiSTEY 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

Every  vocation  in  life  assumes  as  axiomatic  cer- 
tain fundamental  principles  on  which  that  vocation 
is  founded.  Any  man  who  doubts  those  funda- 
mental principles  should  not  choose  that  vocation. 
No  one  should  enter  the  army  if  he  entertains  doubts 
respecting  the  right  of  society  to  use  force.  He 
cannot  be  enthusiastic  as  a  soldier  if  the  theory  of 
non-resistance,  as  it  is  expounded  by  George  Fox 
and  Leo  Tolstoy,  has  any  place  even  in  his  sub- 
consciousness. No  man  should  enter  the  legal  pro- 
fession if  he  regards  philosophical  anarchism  as 
even  a  possible  social  hypothesis.  He  who  is  a  dis- 
ciple of  Prince  Kropotkin,  or  is  inclined  to  be, 
cannot  be  a  good  lawyer.  Christian  Scientists  hold 
either  that  the  body  and  bodily  ills  have  no  real 
existence,  or  that  both  are  emanations  of  the  mind, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  that  all  so-called  bodily  ills 
are  to  be  cured  merely  by  right  thinking.  No  man  to 
whom  this  seems  a  possible  hypothesis  should  enter 
the  medical  profession.  There  are  communists  who 
believe  with  Proudhon  that  the  holding  of  private 


2  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

property  is  wrong,  that  all  property  should  be  held 
in  common.  One  who  shares  this  opinion,  or  even 
regards  it  as  worthy  of  serious  consideration,  ought 
not  to  enter  on  a  mercantile  career,  for  the  commer- 
cial world  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  ac- 
quisition of  property  is  right,  and  that  the  ambition 
to  acquire  property  is  a  just  and  laudable  ambition. 

So  there  are  certain  principles  or  doctrines  which 
underlie  the  Christian  ministry.  They  are  its  funda- 
mentals, its  axioms.  They  must  be  vital  convictions 
in  the  soul,  or  the  man  is  unfit  to  be  a  minister ; 
as  unfit  as  a  communist  to  be  a  railroad  president, 
or  an  anarchist  to  be  district-attorney,  or  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist  to  be  a  medical  practitioner,  or  a 
non-resistant  to  be  a  soldier.  The  Christian  minis- 
ter purposes  to  dedicate  his  life  to  the  ministry 
of  religion ;  therefore  he  must  not  merely  believe 
in  religion;  that  belief  must  be  an  unquestioned 
conviction,  as  clear,  as  definite,  as  positive  in  his 
experience  as  is  belief  in  the  reality  of  bodily  ills 
in  the  mind  of  a  physician,  or  belief  in  the  legiti- 
mate use  of  force  to  resist  wrongdoing  in  the  mind 
of  a  soldier.    What,  then,  is  religion  ? 

To  enter  at  all  adequately  upon  the  religious  his- 
tory of  the  world  for  the  purpose  of  determining  by 
a  fresh  investigation  what  is  the  nature  of  religion 
as  a  vital  force  in  human  history  would  take  me 
too  far  from  my  immediate  theme  and  require  too 
large  a  proportion  of  this  volume;  to  enter  on 
this  history  but  casually  would  be  useless.   Instead, 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    3 

I  accept  two  definitions  which  other  investigators 
have  given  to  the  world,  and  which  seem  to  me, 
after  such  study  of  comparative  religions  as  has  been 
practicable  for  me,  to  be  the  best  which  the  philo- 
sophy of  this  subject  affords.  The  first,  by  a  divine 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  popular ;  the  second, 
by  Max  Miiller,  is  philosophical ;  the  former  lays 
stress  on  religion  diiefly  as  a  motive  power ;  the 
latter,  chiefly  as  an  intellectual  apprehension ;  the 
former  needs  for  exactness  further  defining ;  the  lat- 
ter is  possibly  too  definite  to  be  entirely  adequate. 
He  who  wishes  to  inquire  for  himself  what  is  rehgion 
will  find  the  material  for  such  inquiry  in  the  volume 
from  which  the  second  of  these  two  definitions  is 
taken. 

Henry  ScougaU  defines  religion  as  "the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man."  ^  In  this  definition  he 
assumes  that  God  is,  and  that  he  has  such  vital  rela- 
tions with  man  that  the  life  of  God  may  enter  into 
and  affect  the  life  of  man.  Max  Miiller  concludes 
that  "  religion  consists  in  the  perception  of  the  Infi- 
nite under  such  manifestations  as  are  able  to  influ- 
ence the  moral  character  of  man."  ^  In  this  definition 
he  also  assumes  that  the  Infinite  is,  and  is  an  object 
of  perception  by  man,  and  that  this  perception  by 
man  of  the  Infinite  constitutes  a  motive  power  which 
enters  into  his  life  and  affects  his  moral  character. 

1  Henry  Scougall :  The  Life  of  God  in  the  Soul  of  Man,  A.  D. 
1671. 

2  Max  Muller :  Natural  Beligion,  p.  188. 


4  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

In  this  volume  I  shall  assume  the  correctness  of 
these  two  propositions.  I  shall  recur  to  them  again 
and  again  by  way  of  illustration,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  confirming  certain  conclusions  to  which 
they  necessarily  lead  every  thoughtful  man  who  ac- 
cepts them;  but  I  shall  make  no  attempt  to  prove 
their  truth.  I  assume,  as  the  postulates  on  which 
this  volume  is  founded,  first,  that  God  is  an  object 
of  perception ;  that  he  can  reveal  himseK  directly 
and  immediately  to  man;  and  that  man  has  the 
capacity  to  perceive  him,  either  directly  and  imme- 
diately, or  indirectly  and  mediately  through  such 
revelation ;  and,  secondly,  that  if  God  is  thus  per- 
ceived the  perception  will  affect  for  good  or  iU  the 
moral  character  of  the  man  thus  perceiving  him, 
the  nature  of  that  effect  being  primarily  dependent 
upon  the  clearness  and  the  accuracy  of  man's  per- 
ception of  the  Infinite. 

This  definition  of  religion  implies  that  the  Infinite 
is  reaUy  perceived,  not  merely  imagined.  If  he  is 
not  really  perceived,  there  is  no  real  religion  ;  there 
is  only  a  deception  or  an  illusion.  What  is  called 
religion  is  of  all  vital  phenomena  the  most  wide- 
spread and  the  most  influential.  Neither  art,  music, 
literature,  commerce,  nor  war  has  done  so  much  to 
determine  the  destiny  of  the  nations  as  religion,  be- 
cause religion  has  itself  determined  their  art  and 
their  music,  pervaded,  if  it  has  not  created,  their 
literature,  regulated  their  commerce  by  the  obliga- 
tory ideals  which  it  has  imposed  on  them,  and  some- 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    5 

times  incited  them  to  war,  sometimes  mitigated  it 
or  restrained  them  from  it.  I  shall  assume  that  this 
phenomenon  is  not  due  to  a  deception  or  an  illu- 
sion, but  is  the  result  of  a  real,  though  always 
partial,  often  obscure,  and  sometimes  perverted  per- 
ception of  the  Infinite.  I  shall  assume  the  reality 
of  religion. 

This  definition  of  religion  implies  more  than  a 
perception  of  moral  ideals,  personified  under  the 
general  title  of  God.  Perception  of  God  means 
more  than  a  perception  of  the  good ;  faith  in  God 
means  more  than  belief  in  justice  and  mercy.  It 
means  belief  in  a  just  and  merciful  Person.  "  Moral 
Idealism,"  truly  says  James  Martineau,  "  is  not 
Religion,  unless  the  ideal  is  held  to  be  Heal  as  well 
as  Divine J^  Religion  is  more  than  a  perception 
of  an  ideal  moral  principle  which  exists  only  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  perceive  it ;  it  is  the  perceptioa 
of  a  real  moral  principle  superior  to  and  independ- 
ent of  aU  humanity,  which,  if  it  really  exists  at  all, 
must  exist  in  some  moral  Being.  Religion  is  more 
and  other  than  ethical  culture.  The  minister  of 
religion  must  have  more  than  a  perception,  however 
vivid  and  controlling,  of  ethical  principles.  He 
must  have  a  perception  of  a  Person  who  is  controlled 
by  ethical  principles  and  whose  action  manifests 
them. 

This  definition  of  religion  implies  more  than  a 

^  James  Martineaa :  "  Ideal  Substitutes  for  God,"  Essays,  iv, 
278. 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

belief  in  the  reality  and  influence  of  what  is  called 
religion  in  human  life.  To  perceive  in  religion  only 
a  phenomenon  in  human  history  is  to  perceive  only 
a  phase,  however  important,  of  human  experience  ; 
but  religion  involves  a  real  perception  of  the  Infi- 
nite as  the  cause  of  religious  experience.  One  may 
believe  in  religious  phenomena,  without  believing 
that  a  real  perception  of  the  Infinite  is  the  cause  of 
religious  phenomena.  Such  a  belief  in  the  reality 
of  religious  phenomena  will  suffice  to  make  the  be- 
liever a  teacher  of  comparative  religions,  but  it  will 
not  suffice  to  make  him  a  minister  to  the  religious 
life.  To  be  such  a  minister  he  must  perceive  the 
Infinite  manifesting  himself  in  the  rehgious  life. 

This  definition  of  religion  implies  more  than  be- 
lief in  an  hypothetical  Creator  conceived  of  as  a 
necessary  supposition  in  order  to  account  for  the 
creation,  as  a  scientist  conceives  of  ether  as  a  neces- 
sary supposition  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of 
light.  It  implies  more  than  a  rational  conclusion 
that  God  exists  ;  it  implies  a  perception  of  God  as 
a  living  Being  recognized  by  the  spirit  of  man. 
Deism  is  not  religion.  The  philosophical  conclusion 
that  God  exists  is  not  sufficient  to  make  a  man 
who  has  reached  that  conclusion  a  minister  of  reli- 
gion. He  must  have  a  perception  of  the  living 
God,  not  merely  a  conception  of  a  theoretical  God. 

Finally,  this  definition  of  religion  implies  more 
than  the  perception  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed.   Awe  in  the 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    7 

presence  of  mystery  is  not  religion.  Religion  is  such 
a  perception  of  God  as  affects  the  moral  character 
of  man  ;  it  must  therefore  be  the  perception  of  God 
as  a  Personal  Being,  not  as  an  impersonal  Force. 
By  a  Personal  Being  I  mean  a  Being  who  thinks, 
feels,  and  wills.  Religion  is  a  life  in  ourselves  pro- 
duced by  our  perception  of  Another  under  such 
manifestations  as  influence  our  moral  character,  that 
is,  our  thinking,  our  feeling,  and  our  wills;  but  if 
it  is  to  influence  our  thinking,  our  feeling,  and  our 
wills,  it  must  be  a  perception  of  One  who  himself 
thinks,  feels,  and  wills.  The  minister  of  religion 
must  have,  therefore,  not  merely  an  intellectual 
apprehension  of  God ;  he  must  have  a  moral  per- 
ception of  God.  He  must  so  perceive  him  that  by 
that  perception  his  own  thinking,  feeling,  and  wiU 
are  modified,  clarified,  purified,  strengthened.  There 
must  be  in  some  true  sense  a  reception  as  well  as  a 
perception  of  God.  Or,  to  recur  to  the  other  defi- 
nition, he  must  have  some  measure  of  the  life  of  God 
in  his  own  soul,  if  he  is  to  minister  to  the  life  of 
God  in  the  souls  of  others. 

Religion  antedates  rehgions  and  is  the  mother  of 
them  all.  Religions  vary  according  as  curiosity,  or 
fear,  or  hope,  or  conscience,  or  love  predominates. 
Religion  is  the  perception  of  the  Infinite  under  such 
manifestations  as  are  able  to  influence  the  moral 
character  of  man.  It  may  influence  primarily  to 
seek  for  the  truth  about  the  Infinite :  then  it  wiU 
manifest  itself  in  creeds  and  theologies.    It  may  in- 


8  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

fluence  primarily  to  fear  the  wrath  of  the  Infinite : 
then  it  will  issue  in  propitiations  and  atonements 
and  sacrifices  to  escape  this  wrath.  It  may  influence 
primarily  to  hope  for  reward  from  the  Infinite : 
then  it  wiU  express  itself  in  services  and  sacrifices 
offered  to  the  Infinite  in  hope  of  recompense  here- 
after. It  may  influence  primarily  the  conscience 
through  a  behef  that  the  Infinite  is  a  righteous  law- 
giver :  then  it  will  issue  in  a  constant  warfare  to 
compel  the  lower  animal  nature  to  obey  the  laws 
and  regulations  which  are  believed  to  be  the  ex- 
pressions of  his  holy  will.  It  may  influence  pri- 
marily through  love  of  the  Infinite  as  a  Being  of 
illimitable  love :  then  it  will  issue  in  loyal,  filial, 
reverential  service  of  him  and  in  gladness  of  fellow- 
ship with  him.  The  first  religion  will  be  scholastic, 
the  second  sacrificial,  the  third  and  fourth  legalistic 
if  not  servile,  the  fifth  spontaneous  and  gladsome. 
Each  of  these  phases  of  rehgion  will  have  its  excel- 
lences and  its  defects  :  the  first  will  be  definite,  but 
dogmatic ;  the  second  penitential,  but  superstitious  ; 
the  third  and  fourth  will  be  virile,  but  hard  and 
sometimes  cruel;  the  fifth  will  be  free  and  joy- 
ous, but  vague  in  thought,  possibly  sentimental  if 
not  irreverent,  and  sometimes  careless  and  lawless 
in  life.  In  fact,  in  all  religions  these  different 
elements  are  mingled  though  in  different  propor- 
tions. There  are  defects  in  all  religions,  because 
religion  is  a  human  experience ;  there  are  excel- 
lences in  all  religions,  because  in  religion  man  is 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    9 

seeking  after  excellence.  Religions  change  with 
times,  circumstances,  and  temperaments,  but  religion 
is  universal.  It  would  be  easier  to  destroy  the  appe- 
tites in  man,  and  feed  him  by  shoveling  in  carbon 
as  into  a  furnace ;  or  ambition,  and  consign  him  to 
endless  and  nerveless  content ;  or  love,  and  banish 
him  to  the  life  of  solitude  in  the  wilderness,  than  to 
destroy  in  him  those  desires  and  aspirations  and 
spiritual  perceptions  which  make  him  kin  to  God, 
and  inspire  in  him  the  higher  experiences  of  awe, 
reverence,  penitence,  hope,  and  love. 

But  the  Christian  minister  is  more  than  a  minis- 
ter of  religion;  he  is  a  miaister  of  the  Christian 
religion.  If  religion  "  consists  in  the  perception  of 
the  Infinite  under  such  manifestations  as  are  able 
to  influence  the  moral  character  of  man,"  then  the 
Christian  religion  consists  in  a  perception  of  the 
Infinite  so  manifested  in  the  life  and  character  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  the  manifestation  is  able  to  pro- 
mote in  man  Christlikeness  of  life  and  character. 
Then,  also,  if  the  minister  of  religion  must  have  a 
living  perception  of  the  Infinite  under  such  manifes- 
tations as  are  able  to  influence  the  moral  character 
of  man,  the  Christian  minister  must  so  perceive  the 
Infinite  as  manifested  in  the  hfe  and  character  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  must  himseK  possess  such  mea- 
sure of  Christlikeness,  that  he  can  promote  in  other 
men  a  like  perception  and  a  like  transformation  of 
character. 

Religion  involves  the  relation  between  God  and 


10  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

man.  All  such  relations  involve  obligations  on  both 
sides :  by  the  inferior  to  the  superior,  but  also  by 
the  superior  to  the  inferior.  The  child  owes  duties 
to  the  parent, —  the  parent,  also,  duties  to  the  child  ; 
the  citizen,  duties  to  the  government,  —  the  govern- 
ment, also,  duties  to  the  citizen ;  the  pupil,  duties 
to  the  teacher,  —  the  teacher,  also,  duties  to  the 
pupil :  no  less  is  it  true  that  man  owes  duties  to  God, 
and  God  also  owes  duties  to  man.  There  is  a  mutu- 
ality of  obligation.  God  is  under  obhgation  to  man 
as  truly  as  man  is  under  obligation  to  God.  This 
mutuality  of  obligation  between  God  and  man  is 
explicitly  and  reiteratedly  affirmed  both  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  Testament.  It  is  expressed 
by  the  word  "covenant,"  for  covenant  involves 
mutuality  of  obligation.  There  is,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  enforcement  on  man  of  his  obligation  toward 
God ;  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  the  recognition 
on  God's  part  of  his  obligation  toward  man. 

AU  religions  recognize  the  obligations  of  man  to- 
ward God ;  what  is  distinctive  about  the  Christian 
religion  is  that  it  recognizes  the  obligations  of  God 
toward  man.  This  is  equally  true  of  the  Hebrew 
religion ;  but  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian  religions 
are  not  separate  religions,  but  one.  Christianity  is 
the  Hebrew  religion  in  flower ;  the  Hebrew  religion 
is  Christianity  in  bud.  When,  therefore,  I  say  that 
what  is  distinctive  about  the  Christian  religion  is 
that  it  recognizes  the  obligations  of  God  toward  man, 
I  include  in  that  statement  the  Hebrew  with  the 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    11 

Christian  religion.  This  mutuality  of  obligation  is 
the  common  characteristic  of  the  one  Hebrew-Chris- 
tian religion. 

The  obligations  of  man  toward  God  are  expressed, 
generically,  by  the  term  law ;  specifically,  by  special 
laws;  as,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Golden 
Eule,  the  summary  of  the  Jewish  law  as  given  by 
Christ  in  the  two  great  commandments,  the  precepts 
which  Christ  has  given  (as  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount),  the  moral  maxims  contained  in  the  Book 
of  Proverbs,  or  those  contained  in  the  twelfth  chap- 
ter of  Romans.  These  laws  are  the  enunciation  of 
obligations  which  man  owes  to  God  and  to  his  fel- 
low man,  because  his  feUow  man  is  also  a  child  of 
God.  And  these  obligations  which  man  owes  to  God 
are  stated,  substantially,  by  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament  as  they  are  stated  by 
other  religions ;  more  clearly,  more  simply,  but  in 
their  fundamental  elements  identical.  And  this  is 
because  these  laws  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  the  embodiment  of  the  law  earlier  written 
in  the  consciences  of  men.  The  law,  as  it  is  enun- 
ciated by  the  prophets  and  the  apostles,  is  the  in- 
terpretation to  man  of  the  law  as  it  is  written  in  his 
own  conscience. 

But  while  other  religions  recognize  the  obliga- 
tions of  man  to  God  they  do  not  recognize  the 
obligations  of  God  to  man.  In  the  precepts  of 
Confucius,  in  the  teachings  of  Siddhartha,  in  the 
code  of  Hammurabi,  the  ethical  principles  embodied 


12  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

in  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  may  be  found  substantially  stated  ;  but  there 
will  not  be  found  in  these  or  in  any  other  religious 
writings,  prior  to  or  apart  from  the  Hebrew  and 
Christian  Scriptures,  any  recognition  of  the  obliga- 
tions of  God  to  man,  nor  any  clear  and  explicit 
statement  of  what  God  will  do  in  fulfilling  his 
covenant  for  man.  Analogies  with  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments can  be  found,  but  nothing  analogous 
to  such  promises  as  this  in  the  prophecies  of 
Isaiah : 

Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call  ye  upon 
him  while  he  is  near :  let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts :  and  let  him  re- 
turn unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him; 
and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.^ 

Nor  anything  analogous  to  this  declaration  of 
Paul: 

But  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love 
wherewith  he  loved  us,  even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins, 
hath  quickened  us  together  with  Christ,  (by  grace  ye  are 
saved  ;)  and  hath  raised  us  up  together,  and  made  us  sit 
together  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus :  that  in  the 
ages  to  come  he  might  shew  the  exceeding  riches  of  his 
grace  in  his  kindness  toward  us  through  Christ  Jesus.^ 

In  these  and  kindred  declarations  of  what  God 

has  done  for  men  and  will  do  for  men  the  Scriptures 

of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament  are 

unique ;  nothing  comparable  to  them  is  to  be  found 

1  Isaiah  Iv,  6,  7.  «  Eph.  ii,  4-6. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    13 

in  the  literature  of  other  religions.  In  other  words, 
the  law,  or  man's  duty  to  God,  is  defined  in  analo- 
gous terms  in  all  religious  literatures ;  the  Gospel, 
or  God's  ministry  to  man,  is  peculiar  to  the  Hebrew 
and  Christian  religions. 

It  is  not  only  distinctive,  it  is  emphatic. 

Throughout  their  history  the  Hebrew  people  were 
taught  by  their  religious  teachers  to  look  to  the 
future  for  their  Golden  Age.  This  Golden  Age 
they  called  "  the  theocracy,"  or  "  the  kingdom  of 
God."  Their  prophets  told  them  that  the  time  would 
come  when  the  kingdom  of  God  should  be  estab- 
lished on  the  earth  and  the  will  of  God  done  here 
as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  This  kingdom  was  por- 
trayed in  glowing  colors.  Education  should  be  uni- 
versal ;  law  should  have  its  support  in  religion ; 
war  should  cease,  and  the  warring  nations  should 
beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares  and  their  spears 
into  pruning-hooks ;  the  blind  should  see,  and  the 
lame  should  leap  and  walk ;  the  very  wild  beasts  of 
the  forest  should  be  transformed ;  the  wolf  should 
dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  lie  down  with 
the  kid,  and  the  sucking  child  play  on  the  hole  of 
the  asp,  and  the  earth  be  full  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  seas ;  and  there 
should  be  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  and  right- 
eousness and  praise  should  spring  forth  before 
all  the  nations.  This  kingdom  of  God  was  to  be 
initiated  by  a  Coming  One,  a  Messenger  of  the 
Most  High,  a  Servant  who  should  be  the  Messiah, 


14  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

a  world  Deliverer.  Sometimes  the  Nation  is  indi- 
cated as  this  Servant  of  God ;  sometimes  a  single 
person  seems  to  be  foretold;  sometimes  he  is  por- 
trayed as  King,  sometimes  as  Prophet,  sometimes 
as  Crowned  Sufferer.^  How  these  various  pro- 
phecies are  to  be  reconciled,  or  whether  they  can 
be  reconciled,  I  do  not  stop  here  to  discuss:  I 
think  myself  they  are  simply  different  phases  of 
the  same  gTcat  truth.  However  this  may  be,  it  is 
certain  that  from  the  opening  chapter  of  Genesis 
to  the  last  chapter  of  Malachi,  from  the  legend 
which  speaks  of  a  time  when  the  seed  of  the  woman 
shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head  to  the  closing  verse 
of  the  Old  Testament  collection  which  foretells  the 
great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment writers  agree  in  turning  the  faces  of  the  peo- 
ple toward  the  future,  and  fiUing  their  hearts  with 
a  glad  anticipation  of  a  final  world  deliverance 
from  sin  and  sorrow,  through  Israel,  and  through 
some  servant  of  God  who  should  embody  aU  that 
was  best  and  truest  in  Israel's  message  to  the 
world. 

When  Jesus  Christ  came,  he  began  his  message 
with  the  declaration  that  the  time  for  the  fulfillment 
of  these  prophecies  had  come.^  Going  into  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth,  where  he  was  brought  up  as 

1  Deut.  xviii,  15-19 ;  Psalm  Ixxii ;  Isaiah  ii,  3,  4,  ix,  6,  7,  xi,  1-9, 
xxxiii,  6,  XXXV,  6,  xU,  8-13,  xlii,  1-13,  liii,  1-12,  Ixi,  1-11,  Ixv,  17  ; 
Micah  iv,  2,  3  ;  Hab.  ii,  14 ;  Zech.  ix,  9,  10. 

2  Matt,  iv,  17,  X,  7  ;  Mark  i,  14. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    15 

a  boy,  he  is  asked  to  preach,  and  he  opens  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  and  finds  the  place  where  it  is  written  : 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ; 
he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  brokenhearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight 
to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord.* 

He  then  declares  to  the  congregation  that  he  has 
himself  come  to  fulfill  this  Scripture,  and  that  its 
fulfillment  is  to  carry  blessing  not  merely  to  the 
people  of  Israel,  but  to  the  pagan  world  as  well. 
This  declaration  with  which  he  begins  his  ministry 
constitutes  the  theme  of  his  life  preaching.  That 
theme  is  the  kingdom  of  God  and  himself  as  its 
founder.  Most  of  his  instructions  were  conversa- 
tional ;  but  he  is  reported  as  preaching  five  great 
discourses,  and  this  was  the  theme  of  the  five.  In 
the  first,  at  Nazareth,  he  proclaims  himseK  as  the 
One  who  was  to  fulfill  the  ancient  prophecy,  and 
initiate  the  kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  In 
the  second,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  preached 
at  the  ordination  of  the  Twelve  to  be  his  helpers, 
he  explains  the  nature  and  expounds  the  prin- 
ciples of  that  kingdom.  In  the  third  discourse, 
or  series  of  discourses,  the  Parables  by  the  sea- 
shore, he  traces  prophetically  the  growth  of  that 
kingdom.  In  the  fourth,  on  the  Bread  of  Life,  he 
reveals  the  secret  of  the  power  by  which  that  king- 
1  Luke  iv,  18, 19;  Isaiah  M,  1, 2. 


16  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

dom  of  God  is  to  be  established  in  this  world  :  the 
secret  is  acceptance  of  the  Christ  spirit,  posses- 
sion of  the  Christ  life,  loyalty  to  Christ.  In  the 
fifth,  the  discourse  on  the  last  days,  he  foretells 
the  consummation  of  that  kingdom,  and  the  public 
recognition  of  himself  as  the  judge  and  lord  of  the 
kingdom.^ 

Once  he  asks  his  disciples  whom  they  think  him 
to  be.  When  Peter  replies  by  affirming  their  faith 
that  he  is  the  promised  Messiah,  he  approves  the 
declaration,  and  affirms  that  on  this  faith  in  him 
as  the  world  Deliverer,  and  on  the  power  of  that 
faith  to  transform  men  as  it  will  transform  Peter 
from  a  character  as  shifty  as  the  waves  of  the  sea 
to  one  as  firm  as  a  rock  foundation,  he  will  build 
his  church.  Again  and  again,  in  language  which 
would  be  supremely  egotistical  were  it  not  divinely 
true,  he  points  to  himself  as  the  source  of  life  in 
all  its  various  phases.  "  I  have  come,"  he  says, 
"  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abimdantly."  And  what  he  means  by 
life  he  makes  clear  by  repeated  and  explicit  invi- 
tations, "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  wiU  give  you  rest."  "  Come  ye 
after  me,  and  I  will  make  you  to  become  fishers  of 
men."  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me, 
and  drink."  "Whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst."  "  My 
peace  I  give  unto  you."  "  These  things  have  I 
1  Luke  iv,  16-21 ;  Matt,  v,  yi,  vii,  xiii ;  John  vi,  26-59, 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    17 

spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  might  remain  in  you."  ^ 
Rest,  power,  contentment,  peace,  joy,  —  these  are 
some  of  the  elements  in  that  life  which  he  declares 
that  he  has  come  to  give  to  mankind. 

His  life  draws  to  a  close.  Betrayed  by  one  dis- 
ciple, denied  by  a  second,  deserted  by  the  others, 
he  is  brought  before  the  Jewish  Supreme  Court  and 
accused  of  blasphemy  in  declaring  himself  to  be  the 
long-promised  Messiah.  In  violation  of  the  Jewish 
law  he  is  put  upon  the  witness-stand,  the  oath  is 
administered  to  him,  and  he  is  asked  directly  the 
question  whether  he  is  the  Messiah  or  no.  In  full 
consciousness  of  the  fact  that  by  his  answer  he  seals 
his  own  death  warrant,  he  replies,  "  I  am."  ^  He 
dies,  and  in  his  grave  the  hopes  of  his  disciples  are 
buried.  They  return  to  their  fishing.  Then  it  be- 
gins to  be  whispered  about  among  them  that  the 
Jesus  whom  they  followed  has  risen  from  the  dead. 
With  difficulty  they  are  convinced  of  the  fact,  but 
when  they  are  convinced  their  despair  is  turned 
into  triumph.  The  fact  that  death  had  no  dominion 
over  him  convinces  them  that  he  was  indeed  the 
One  who  was  to  bring  deliverance  to  the  world  ;  and 
with  this  message  they  go  forth  to  carry  the  hope  of 
deliverance  to  the  nations.  If  the  reader  will  turn 
to  the  Book  of  Acts,  and  read  the  reports  there 
given  of  the  Apostolic  sermons,  he  will  find  that 

1  Matt,  xvi,  13-19  ;  John  x,  10  ;  Matt,  xi,  28 ;  Mark  i,  17 ;  John 
Tii,  37  ;  John  iv,  14 ;  John  xiv,  27 ;  John  xv,  11. 

2  Mark  xiv,  62. 


18  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

they  are  all  different  forms  of  the  same  message.^ 
That  message  is  not  ethical,  it  is  not  a  new  philoso- 
phy of  life,  nor  a  new  interpretation  of  the  character 
of  God,  nor  the  elaboration  of  a  new  conception  of 
man's  relation  to  God.  The  Apostles  are  witness- 
bearers  and  what  they  bear  witness  to  is  this  :  The 
world  Deliverer  has  come,  and  we  know  that  he 
is  the  world  Deliverer  because  he  has  triumphed 
over  the  last  enemy,  Death,  over  whom  no  one  before 
ever  won  a  victory.  In  that  message  Christianity 
was  bom,  by  that  message  Christianity  has  won  its 
victory  in  the  world.    Says  Browning  : 

Does  the  precept  run  "  Believe  in  good, 

In  justice,  truth,  now  understood 

For  the  first  time  ?  "  —  or,  * '  Believe  in  me, 

Who  lived  and  died,  yet  essentially 

Am  Lord  of  Life  ?  "  Whoever  can  take 

The  same  to  his  heart  and  for  mere  lovers  sake 

Conceive  of  the  love,  —  that  man  obtains 

A  new  truth ;  no  conviction  gains 

Of  an  old  one  only,  made  intense 

By  a  fresh  appeal  to  his  faded  sense.^ 

The  reports  of  Christ's  life  and  teachings  afforded 
by  the  Four  Gospels  answer  Browning's  question  : 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  theme  of  his  own  ministry. 
The  history  of  Christianity  confirms  Browning's 
affirmation  :  it  is  the  history  of  a  new  moral  power 
in  the  world  derived  from  a  new  perception  of  the 
Infinite,  and  a  new  effect  produced  thereby  on  the 
moral  character  of  man. 

1  For  examples :  Acts  ii,  22-36;  iii,  12-26 ;  iv,  8-12 ;  v,  29-82. 
*  Robert  Browning :  Christmas  Eve,  xviL 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    19 

It  has  often  been  said  that  Christianity  is  summed 
up  in  the  two  commands,  —  "  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  aU  thy  mind,"  and  "  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  In  fact,  this  is  not  Chris- 
tianity at  all ;  this  is  Christ's  summary  of  Judaism, 
his  summary  of  the  law  which  defines  man's  obliga- 
tion to  God.i  But  this  definition  of  man's  obligation 
to  God  is  not  distinctively  Christian,  it  is  hardly 
even  distinctively  Jewish.  Christianity  is  the  state- 
ment of  what  God  has  done  and  is  doing  for  man ; 
and  what  it  affirms  God  has  done  and  is  doing  for 
man  is  this :  God  has  come  into  life  and  fiUed 
one  human  life  fuU  of  himself  that  he  may  fill  all 
human  lives  full  of  himself,  and  in  doing  this  he 
has  brought  the  world  deliverance  from  its  sins, 
and  transformed  its  sorrows  into  sources  of  a  joy 
deeper  than  any  sorrowless  joy. 

Let  us  return  to  Max  MiiUer's  definition:  re- 
ligion is  "  the  perception  of  the  Infinite  under 
such  manifestations  as  are  able  to  influence  the 
moral  character  of  man."  Then  the  Christian  re- 
ligion is  such  a  perception  of  the  Infinite  as  mani- 
fested in  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ 
that  the  perception  is  able  to  produce  in  man 
Christlikeness  of  life  and  character. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  men  disbelieve  the  Incar- 
nation. I  sometimes  wonder  whether  any  man 
believes   it,  whether   I   really  believe   it   myself. 

1  Matt,  xadi,  37-40. 


20  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

What  does  it  really  mean?  Nothing  else  than 
this  :  that  the  "  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from 
which  aU  things  proceed,"  ^  which  creates,  rules, 
pervades  the  universe,  energizing  it  alike  on  the 
earth  and  on  the  remotest  star ;  that  the  "  Power 
not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness,"  ^  the 
power  in  aU  history,  overruling  all  human  wills, 
and  out  of  stubborn  and  stupid  souls  working  out 
a  divine  progress  in  events ;  that  this  Energy,  this 
Power,  has  entered  into  one  human  life,  filled  it 
full,  and  lived  and  loved  and  suffered  and  died 
that  we  might  know  who  and  what  he  is,  and  how 
he  who  is  intangible,  inaudible,  invisible,  is  opera- 
tive upon  us.  I  believe  this  because  I  believe,  with 
Browning,  that  it  is  easier  to  think  God  has  done 
this  than  that  man  has  imagined  it. 

But,  if  we  are  ministers  of  the  Christian  religion, 
we  perceive  the  Infinite  not  merely  in  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  we  perceive  the  Infinite  in 
his  post-resurrection  life  and  work.   We  believe  and 

^  "  Amid  all  the  mysteries  which  become  the  more  mysterious 
the  more  they  are  thought  about,  there  will  remain  the  one  abso- 
lute certainty,  that  he  is  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed."  —  Herbert 
Spencer:  Religious  Retrospect  and  Prospect,  "Ecclesiastical  In- 
stitutions," p.  843. 

2  "  How  are  we  to  verify  that  there  rules  an  enduring  Power 
not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness  ?  We  may  answer  at 
once :  How  ?  Why,  as  you  verify  that  fire  bums,  —  by  experi- 
ence I  It  is  so ;  try  it !  You  can  try  it ;  every  case  of  conduct,  of 
that  which  is  more  than  three  fourths  of  your  own  life  and  of  the 
life  of  all  mankind,  will  prove  it  to  you."  —  Matthew  Arnold : 
Literature  and  Dogma,  p.  267. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    21 

bear  witness  not  merely  that  God  was  in  Christ  re- 
conciling the  world  unto  himself ;  we  believe  and 
bear  witness  that  God  is  in  this  world  of  men  here 
and  now.  The  incarnation  was  not  ended  at  Calvary. 
It  is  a  perpetual  fact.  We  believe  that  Christ  is 
risen  from  the  dead.  This  is  not  merely  a  curious 
fact  in  ancient  history.  What  difference  would  it 
make  to  us  whether  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead  or  not 
if  that  were  aU  ?  It  is  not  practically  important  for 
us  to  know  whether  the  man  borne  to  his  burial, 
and  falling  from  his  bier,  rose  from  the  dead  when 
he  fell  on  Elisha's  bones.  It  is  not  practically  im- 
portant for  us  to  know  whether  Lazarus  really  rose 
from  the  dead  or  not.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  important,  because  to  us  it  means  that 
this  God  who  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  this  image 
of  God,  this  Immanuel  —  God  with  us  —  is  stiU 
with  us.  He  is  not  dead,  he  never  died,  he  could 
not  die.  This  Christ,  who  lived  eighteen  centuries 
ago  in  Nazareth  and  Capernaum,  still  lives ;  there 
is  no  death  for  him  or  for  his  followers ;  he  came 
back  to  the  world ;  he  is  in  the  world ;  he  is  as  truly 
in  America  as  he  was  in  Galilee,  as  present  in  the 
Christian  church  as  he  was  in  the  Jewish  temple 
and  the  Jewish  synagogue ;  and  he  is  carrying  on 
through  all  these  centuries  the  same  work  of  for- 
giving, healing,  helping,  inspiring  love  which  he 
carried  on  during  the  three  short  years  of  his  re- 
corded earthly  life.  The  Christian  religion  is  the 
perception  of  the  Infinite  in   the  earthly   life  of 


22  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  also  the  perception  of  the  Infi- 
nite in  the  world  history  of  Christianity.  It  is  the 
perception  of  God  in  the  world  reconciling  the  world 
to  himself,  —  forgiving  its  sins,  assuaging  its  sor- 
rows, and  inspiring  it  with  a  new  and  divine  life. 
The  Christian  religion  involves  a  new  theology, 
that  is,  a  new  conception  of  God.  The  earliest  con- 
ception of  God  is  of  one  who  is  manifested  in 
power.  This  is  a  true  conception,  but  it  is  a  partial, 
incomplete,  imperfect,  and  so  misleading  concep- 
tion. He  is  seen  as  the  All-mighty  One,  but  only 
as  the  AU-mighty  One.  He  is  more.  Says  a  He- 
brew Psalmist :  "  Twice  have  I  heard  this ;  that 
power  belongeth  unto  God.  Also  unto  thee,  O  Lord, 
belongeth  mercy."  ^  When  the  first  message  only 
is  heard,  not  also  the  second,  when  man  sees  the 
Infinite  only  in  the  manifestation  of  extraordinary 
power,  and  not  also  in  the  merciful  instincts  of  his 
own  heart,  the  natural  result  is  a  religion  of  fear. 
This  religion  Plutarch  has  graphically  portrayed : 

Of  all  fears  none  so  dazes  and  confounds  as  superstition. 
He  fears  not  the  sea  that  never  goes  to  sea;  nor  a 
battle  that  follows  not  the  camp  ;  nor  robbers  that  goes 
not  abroad ;  nor  malicious  informers  that  is  a  poor  man ; 
nor  emulation  that  leads  a  private  life ;  nor  earthquakes 
that  dwells  in  Gaul ;  nor  thunderbolts  that  dwells  in 
Ethiopia :  but  he  that  dreads  the  divine  powers  dreads 
everything,  —  the  land,  the  sea,  the  air,  the  sky,  the  dark, 
the  light,  a  sound,  a  silence,  a  dream.  ^ 

1  Psalm  Ixii,  11,  12. 

2  Plutarch's  Morals,  i,  169,  Of  Superstitioii. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    23 

To  the  pagan  world  dominated  by  this  fear  came 
the  Jewish  religion,  which  in  its  earlier  forms  was 
a  conception  of  God  as  one  manifested  in  the  con- 
science of  mankind.  Its  message  to  the  world  was 
that  God  is  a  righteous  God  who  demands  right- 
eousness of  his  children  and  demands  nothing  else ; 
that  he  wiU  reward  with  peace  and  prosperity  those 
who  obey  his  just  laws,  but  also  that  he  wiU  recom- 
pense with  penalty,  certain  and  terrible,  those  who 
do  not  obey.  "  I  call  heaven  and  earth  to  record 
this  day  against  you,"  says  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  "  that  I  have  set  before  you  life 
and  death,  blessing  and  cursing:  therefore  choose 
life,  that  both  thou  and  thy  seed  may  live."  ^  This 
conception  of  God  as  a  righteous  Person,  who 
"  loves  righteousness  and  expects  man  to  conform 
to  his  peremptory  rules  of  law,"  ^  ^as  a  true  con- 
ception, but  it  was  also  partial,  incomplete,  im- 
perfect, and  so  misleading.  It  was  not  a  conception 
which  brought  peace,  for  there  was  always  possible 
a  fear  that  the  soul  had  made  a  wrong  choice,  and 
the  more  conscientious  the  individual  the  greater 
was  his  apprehension.  From  both  fears  the  later 
Hebrew  religion  by  its  message,  and  Christianity 
by  its  fulfillment  of  that  message,  brought  deliver- 

^  Dent.  XXX,  19. 

2  "  The  profound  religions  movement  which  took  place  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Israel  in  the  ninth  century  b.  c.  resolved  itself  into 
the  assertion  that  Jehovah  is  a  just  God,  who  loves  righteousness 
and  expects  man  to  conform  to  his  peremptory  rules  of  law."  — 
Benan :  History  of  the  People  of  Israd,  ii,  304. 


24  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ance.  It  perceived  the  Infinite  not  only  as  the  Al- 
mighty, not  only  as  a  righteous  God  who  demands 
righteousness  of  his  children  and  demands  nothing 
else;  it  perceived  God  as  a  redeeming  God,  who 
will  help  man  to  attain  righteousness.  The  message 
of  Mosaism  was  summed  up  in  the  Ten  Command- 
ments :  Reverence  God,  honor  your  parents,  regard 
the  rights  of  your  neighbor,  and  do  this  spontane- 
ously from  the  heart,  do  not  desire  to  do  the  re- 
verse, and  God  will  be  your  God,  and  you  shall  be 
to  him  a  nation  of  priests.  The  message  of  the 
later  Hebrew  religion  was  summed  up  in  the  One 
Hundred  and  Third  Psalm  : 

Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul, 

And  forget  not  all  his  benefits : 

Who  f orgiveth  all  thine  iniquities ; 

Who  healeth  all  thy  diseases ; 

Who  redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruction ; 

Who  crowneth  thee  with  lovingkindness  and  tender  mercies ; 

Who  satisfieth  thy  mouth  with  good  things ; 

So  that  thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle.^ 

This  message,  illustrated,  emphasized,  manifested, 
fulfilled  in  the  life  of  Christ  and  in  the  Christian 
experience  of  his  disciples,  constitutes  the  message 
of  the  Christian  ministry  to  the  world.  It  is  the 
message  that  God  is  such  an  one  as  Jesus  Christ ; 
that  the  Infinite  is  to  be  seen  manifested  in  a  finite 
form  in  Jesus  Christ;  that  he  judges  as  Jesus 
Christ  judges,  condemns  as  Jesus  Christ  condemns, 
forgives  as  Jesus  Christ  forgives ;  that  he  is  a  Healer 

^  Psalm  ciii,  2-5. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    25 

and  Helper,  a  Saviour  and  Redeemer,  a  Friend  of 
the  friendless,  a  Companion  of  men;  that  he  is 
ever  doing  in  the  world  what  Jesus  Christ  did  in 
Galilee ;  that  the  Infinite  is  love,  and  that  the  life 
and  service  and  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  the 
interpreters  of  his  love.  To  the  pagan  conception 
of  God  as  power,  to  the  Jewish  conception  of  God 
as  justice,  —  both  of  which  were  but  partial  and 
imperfect, — Christianity  adds  the  revelation  of  God 
as  mercy.  Power  is  no  longer  feared  when  it  is  the 
power  of  a  Father,  pledged  to  be  used  for  the  suc- 
cor of  his  child.  And  this  is  the  message  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  fearful :  "  My  Father,  which  hath 
given  them  unto  me,  is  greater  than  all ;  and  no 
one  is  able  to  snatch  them  out  of  the  Father's 
hand."  ^  Justice  is  no  longer  feared  when,  at  the 
same  moment  and  by  the  same  act  by  which  jus- 
tice sets  up  a  standard  of  character,  it  promises  to 
enable  the  feeblest  to  achieve  the  standard.  And 
this  is  the  testimony  of  Christianity  to  the  fearful : 
"  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  ^ 

But  the  Christian  religion  is  not  merely  a  per- 
ception of  the  Infinite  in  the  life  and  character  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  post-resurrection  history 
of  his  work  in  the  world,  it  is  also  a  change  in  the 
moral  character  of  man  produced  by  that  percep- 
tion. It  is  the  transformation  of  character,  indi- 
vidual and  social,  which  that  perception  has  wrought 
1  John  X,  29.  a  1  John  i,  9. 


26  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

in  men.  The  perception  of  the  Infinite  as  helping 
mankind  out  of  their  ignorance  and  poverty  and 
misery  and  sinfulness  has  inspired  in  men  to  whom 
that  perception  was  given  a  like  spirit  of  helpful- 
ness. The  life  of  Christ  as  a  revelation  of  what 
the  Father  is  always  doing  in  the  world  has  inspired 
men  to  identify  themselves  with  him  in  this  service 
of  love.  For  the  standard  of  justice  which  Judaism 
had  given  in  the  Golden  Rule,  —  "all  things  what- 
soever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  even  so  to  them,"i  Christ  substituted  a  new 
standard  in  the  commandment,  "  That  ye  love  one 
another,  as  I  have  loved  you."  ^  Not  equality  of  ser- 
vice, but  self-sacrificing  service,  is  the  ideal,  and  in 
an  increasing  number  of  instances  has  become  the 
passion  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ.  Inspired 
by  this  spirit,  Christianity  became  a  great  world 
movement  for  the  emancipation  and  elevation  of 
mankind.  Christianity  is  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
the  overthrow  of  despotism,  the  recognition  of  the 
truth  that  all  just  governments  are  administered 
for  the  benefit  of  the  governed,  the  organization 
of  charity  for  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  blind,  the 
establishment  of  educational  systems  intended  for 
and  open  to  the  masses,  the  diffusion  of  wealth 

1  Matt,  vii,  12.  Christ  does  not  give  this  as  his  rule  of  life,  but 
as  his  summary  of  the  law  and  the  prophets.  The  Golden  Rule 
is  simply  a  rule  of  justice.  What  right  have  I  to  demand  that 
another  should  treat  me  better  than  I  would  treat  him  if  our 
positions  and  relations  were  reversed  ? 

a  John  XV,  12. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    27 

and  comfort,  better  homes,  better  food,  better 
clothing,  better  sanitary  conditions  for  all  men. 
Because  Christianity  is  a  new  perception  of  what 
Christlike  work  God  is  doing  in  the  world,  because 
it  is  an  inspiration  to  man  to  take  part  in  this 
work,  it  is  a  great-  world  movement.  It  is  Christ's 
sermon  at  Nazareth  writ  large  in  hmnan  history ; 
it  is  the  story  of  One  who  for  eighteen  centuries 
has  been  proclaiming  glad  tidings  to  the  poor,  heal- 
ing the  broken-hearted,  delivering  the  captives, 
bestowing  sight  on  the  blind,  setting  at  liberty 
those  that  are  bruised.  It  is  the  One  Hundred  and 
Third  Psalm  writ  large  in  human  experience ;  the 
history  of  a  world  that  has  been  sinning  and  sick 
and  dying  and  humbling  its  head  in  dust  and  ashes, 
and  of  a  God  who  has  been  forgiving  its  iniqui- 
ties and  healing  its  diseases  and  saving  it  from  self- 
destruction  and  crowning  it  with  loving-kindness 
and  with  tender  mercies. 

The  Christian  minister  is  a  minister  of  this 
Christian  redemption.  It  is  true  that  in  the  life 
and  character  of  Jesus  Christ  he  holds  up  a  new 
ideal  and  a  new  standard  of  life,  and  writes  under- 
neath it,  "  That  ye  love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved 
you."  It  is  true  that,  in  the  life  and  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ,  he  holds  up  a  new  conception  of  God 
as  the  Father  of  whom  every  family  in  heaven  and 
on  earth  is  named,  and  writes  underneath  it,  "  Say, 
Our  Father."  But  he  does  more  than  this.  He  is 
the  herald  of  a  great  Deliverer,  and  he  brings  the 


28  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

message  of  a  world  deliverance.  His  message  is 
that  the  Messiah  has  come;  that  the  world  is  a 
saved  world ;  that  sorrow  is  transformed,  so  that 
even  in  their  tears  Christians  may  cry,  "  We  glory 
in  tribulations  also ; "  ^  that  sin  is  vanquished,  so 
that  even  while  the  battle  is  waged  against  it, 
Christians  may  shout  as  they  fight,  "  We  are  more 
than  conquerors  through  him  that  loved  us."  ^  He 
is  the  messenger  of  glad  tidings  to  the  poor,  of 
healing  to  the  broken-hearted,  of  deliverance  to 
the  captives,  of  sight  to  the  blind,  of  liberty  to  the 
bruised ;  he  is  the  preacher  of  forgiveness  to  the  sin- 
ful, of  health  to  the  diseased  and  the  dying,  of 
newness  of  life  to  those  who  have  thrown  their  lives 
away,  of  loving-kindness  and  tender  mercies  to  those 
for  whom  life  seems  to  have  no  mercy,  and  hu- 
manity no  love. 

If  he  is  to  do  this,  he  must  perceive  the  Infinite 
as  the  Infinite  is  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
he  must  be  able  to  open  the  eyes  of  men  so  that 
they  shall  perceive  the  Infinite  as  the  Infinite  is 
manifested  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  must  so  perceive 
the  Infinite  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  so  enable  them  to 
perceive  the  Infinite  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  Christ- 
likeness  of  disposition  and  character  shall  be  pro- 
moted alike  in  himself  and  in  them.  I  do  not  say  that 
a  man  may  not  at  times  have  doubts  respecting  the 
Christian  religion,  and  still  be  an  effective  Chris- 
tian minister.    A  soldier  may  at  times  wonder,  Is 

1  Rom.  V,  3.  ^  Rom.  viii,  37. 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    29 

war  ever  right  ?  or  a  doctor,  Is  it  worth  while  to 
administer  drugs  ?  But  underlying  the  soldier's  pro- 
fession is  the  strong  confidence  that  it  is  right  to  use 
force  to  put  down  force,  and  underlying  the  doctor's 
profession  is  the  strong  conviction  that  there  are 
physical  remedies  for  physical  diseases.  So,  despite 
the  doubts  that  may  sometimes  surge  in  upon  him, 
underlying  the  work  of  the  Christian  minister  must 
be  his  fundamental  faith,  so  wrought  into  his  con- 
sciousness that  it  is  a  part  of  his  nature,  not  merely 
that  there  are  noble  moral  ideals,  not  merely  that 
there  is  a  personal  God,  not  merely  that  we  owe  to 
him  reverential  and  loving  obedience,  but  that  God 
is  in  his  world,  ever  doing  what  Jesus  Christ  is 
portrayed  as  doing  in  his  earthly  life,  —  pardoning 
iniquity,  healing  disease,  redeeming  life  from  de- 
struction, and  crowning  man  with  loving-kindnesses 
and  with  tender  mercies. 

It  is  because  this  is  the  message  of  the  Christian 
Church  that  the  Church  lays  such  stress  upon  its 
faith  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  re- 
surrection of  Jesus  Christ  means  to  the  Christian 
believer  that  the  Deliverer  triumphed  over  death  in 
the  very  moment  when  death  seemed  to  triumph 
over  him.  It  means  that  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  is  but  the  projection  in  visible  form 
upon  the  screen  of  human  history  of  a  spiritual 
force  more  effective  now  than  then  just  because  it 
is  invisible,  an  influence  working  in  and  through 
the  spirits  of  men,  and  therefore  limited  by  no  con- 


30  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ditions  of  time  or  space.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  merely  a  miraculous  evidence  of  his 
Messiahship,  it  is  not  merely  the  historical  basis 
of  Christianity  as  a  world  movement ;  it  is  also 
an  historical  witness  to  the  spiritual  vitality  of  a 
Divine  Redeemer  whom  death  could  not  imprison. 

This  message  of  the  Christian  religion  makes  it 
a  missionary  religion.  The  Christian  missionary 
does  not  go  to  pagan  nations  to  teU  them  that  their 
religion  is  the  product  of  priestcraft,  or  a  delusion 
of  the  devil;  nor  to  abolish  one  form  of  worship 
that  he  may  substitute  another ;  nor  as  the  enemy 
of  the  spiritual  faith,  imperfect  as  it  may  be,  of  the 
people  to  whom  he  ministers.  He  goes  in  the  spirit 
of  Paul  to  Athens,  —  to  say  to  the  pagan  world, 
"  Whom  without  understanding  ye  worship,  him  we 
declare  unto  you  ; "  he  goes  to  make  clearer  and 
more  intelligible  the  voice  of  their  own  conscience 
as  it  is  interpreted  in  their  own  ethical  precepts ; 
he  goes  to  emphasize  their  own  sense  of  sin  and 
their  own  need  of  pardon  and  help  as  these  find 
expression  in  their  religious  rituals  ;  and,  above  all, 
he  goes  to  answer  the  question  which  their  religious 
faith  asks. 

Professor  William  James,  in  his  suggestive  vol- 
ume "  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"  says, 
"  Is  there,  imder  all  the  discrepancies  of  creeds,  a 
common  nucleus  to  which  they  bear  their  testimony 
unanimously?"  and  answers  his  question  in  the 
affirmative  thus : 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    31 

The  warring  Gods  and  formulas  of  the  various  reli- 
gions do  indeed  cancel  each  other,  but  there  is  a  certain 
uniform  deliverance  in  which  religions  all  appear  to  meet. 
It  consists  of  two  parts  : 

1.  An  uneasiness ;  and 

2.  Its  solution. 

1.  The  uneasiness,  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  is  a 
sense  that  there  is  something  wrong  about  us  as  we  nat- 
urally stand. 

2.  The  solution  is  that  we  are  saved  from  the  wrongs 
ness  by  making  proper  connection  with  the  higher 
powers.^ 

This  is  as  far  as  paganism  carries  its  votaries. 
The  question  which  it  leaves  them  asking,  "  How 
shall  we  make  proper  connection  with  the  higher 
powers  ?  "  Christianity  answers  by  replying,  "  The 
higher  powers  have  already  made  that  connection." 
We  have  not  to  remove  the  past  sins  which  sepa- 
rate us  from  God,  for  he  has  already  forgiven  them ; 
we  are  not  to  earn  his  favor  by  penances  or  services 
of  any  description,  —  his  favor  is  the  free  gift  of  his 
love;  we  are  not  by  self -absorption  and  interior 
meditation  to  think  ourselves  into  some  mystical 
acquaintance  with  him,  —  he  has  revealed  himself  to 
us  by  coming  into  human  life  and  interpreting  him- 
self to  us  in  the  terms  of  a  human  experience ;  in 
short,  we  are  not  to  climb  up  to  God,  —  he  has 
come  down  to  us,  and  takes  us  into  his  strong  arms 
as  a  father  takes  his  child  :  all  that  we  need  to  do 
is  to  accept  the  forgiveness  that  he  freely  offers, 

1  William  James :  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience^  p.  508. 


32  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and  live  joyously  the  life  with  which  he  inspires 
us. 

This  message  of  the  Christian  Church  is  the  se- 
cret of  the  power  which  the  Evangelical  churches 
possess,  and  which  no  naturalistic  philosophy  or  mere 
ethical  teaching  can  ever  rival.  It  is  our  faith  in 
this  message  which  makes  us  suspicious  of  aU  philoso- 
phies which  seem  to  eliminate  the  supernatural  from 
the  world.  It  is  because  this  is  our  message  that 
we  insist  upon  what  are  commonly  called  the  great 
cardinal  doctrines  of  the  Evangelical  faith,  such  as 
Inspiration,  Incarnation,  Atonement,  and  Regenera- 
tion. This  is  not  because  we  are  enamored  of  a 
particular  system  of  theology;  it  is  because  our 
message  to  the  world  is  like  that  of  Jacob  to  him- 
self when  he  woke  from  his  dream :  "  Surely  the 
Lord  is  in  this  place ;  and  I  knew  it  not."  I  have 
been  often  asked  to  define  the  difference  between  the 
New  Theology  and  Unitarianism.  That  difference  is 
difficult  to  define,  because  both  the  New  Theology 
and  Unitarianism  lay  stress  on  life  rather  than  on 
doctrine.  But  I  may  indicate  the  two  trends  of  opin- 
ion, —  one  toward  Divine  inunanence,  the  other 
toward  naturalism,  —  without  imdertaking  to  iden- 
tify the  first  with  the  new  orthodoxy,  or  the  second 
with  Unitarianism,  and  1  may  do  this  by  quoting  the 
words  of  James  Martineau,  who,  though  he  always 
disavowed  the  name  Unitarian,  was  certainly  no 
Trinitarian,  and  in  his  philosophy  belonged  to  the 
liberal  school  of  thought,  though  he  was  not  always 


FUNDAMENTAL  FAITHS  OF  THE  MINISTRY    33 

ecclesiastically  in  sympathy  with  the  Unitarian  de- 
nomination. His  testimony  is  the  more  significant 
because  it  was  written  toward  the  close  of  his  life : 

Your  experience  confirms  my  growing  surprise,  that 
the  mission  which  had  been  consigned  to  us  by  our  his- 
tory is  likely  to  pass  to  the  Congregationalists  in  Eng- 
land and  the  Presbyterians  in  Scotland.  Their  escape 
from  the  old  orthodox  scheme  is  by  a  better  path  than 
ours.  With  us,  insistence  upon  the  simple  Humanity  of 
Christ  has  come  to  mean  the  limitation  of  all  Divine- 
ness  to  the  Father,  leaving  Man  a  mere  item  of  crea- 
turely  existence  under  the  laws  of  Natural  Necessity. 
With  them  the  transfer  of  emphasis  from  the  Atonement 
to  the  Incarnation  means  the  retention  of  a  Divine  es- 
sence in  Christ,  as  the  Head  and  Type  of  Humanity  in 
its  realized  idea ;  so  that  Man  and  Life  are  lifted  into 
kinship  with  God,  instead  of  what  had  been  God  being 
reduced  to  the  scale  of  mere  Nature.  The  union  of  the 
two  natures  in  Christ  resolves  itself  into  their  union  in 
man,  and  links  Heaven  and  Earth  in  relations  of  com- 
mon spirituality.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  Divineness 
of  existence,  instead  of  being  driven  off  into  the  heights 
beyond  life,  is  thus  brought  down  into  the  deeps  within 
it,  and  diffuses  there  a  multitude  of  sanctities  that  would 
else  have  been  secularized.  Hence,  the  feeling  of  rever- 
ence, the  habits  of  piety,  the  aspirations  of  faith,  the 
hopes  of  immortality,  the  devoutness  of  duty,  which  have 
so  much  lost  their  hold  on  our  people,  remain  real  powers 
among  the  liberalized  orthodox,  and  enable  them  to 
carry  their  appeal  home  to  the  hearts  of  men  in  a  way 
the  secret  of  which  has  escaped  from  us.  I  hardly  think 
we  shall  recover  it  now.  There  is  plenty  of  scope,  how- 
ever, for  any  young  prophet  who  can  bring  into  his  mis- 


34  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

sion  the  faith  and  fervour  of  more  spiritual  churches,  in 
combination  with  the  rationality  and  veracity  of  ours.^ 

Whenever  a  minister  forgets  this  splendid  mes- 
sage of  pardon,  peace,  and  power  based  on  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  whenever 
for  this  message  he  substitutes  literary  lectures, 
critical  essays,  sociological  disquisitions,  theological 
controversies,  or  even  ethical  interpretations  of  the 
universal  conscience,  whenever,  in  other  words,  he 
ceases  to  be  a  Christian  preacher  and  becomes  a 
lyceum  or  seminary  lecturer,  he  divests  himself  of 
that  which  in  all  ages  of  the  world  has  been  the 
power  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  will  be  its 
power  so  long  as  men  have  sins  to  be  forgiven, 
temptations  to  conquer,  and  sorrows  to  be  assuaged. 

1  James  Dnuumond :  The  Life  and  Letters  of  James  Martineau, 
ii,  231. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

Is  there  any  longer  need  for  a  Church  and  a  min- 
istry ?  That  men  and  women  are  putting  this  ques- 
tion to  themselves,  and  answering  it  either  with  a 
doubtful  affirmative  or  with  a  positive  negative, 
cannot  be  questioned  by  any  student  of  modem 
thought. 

There  are  a  few  who  agree,  more  or  less  defi- 
nitely, with  Strauss  ^  that  "  instead  of  a  prerogative 
of  human  nature  it  [religion]  appears  as  a  weak- 
ness which  adhered  to  mankind  during  the  period 
of  childhood,  but  which  it  must  outgrow  on  at- 
taining maturity."  They  rank  religion  with  super- 
stition, believe  it  to  be  the  product  of  priestcraft,  — 
something  which  has  been  imposed  upon  the  credu- 
lity of  mankind, — a  weakness,  not  a  strength ;  a  fee- 
bleness, if  not  a  folly,  which  belongs  to  the  primitive 
condition  of  mankind,  and  is  to  be  discarded  as  man- 
kind reaches  its  higher  development.  Such  men 
look  with  contempt  upon  the  institutions  of  religion, 
because  they  look  with  contempt  upon  religion  it- 
self. 

Others  believe  that  reverence  and  awe  are  neces- 
1  David  Friedrich  Strauss :  The  Old  Faith  and  the  New,  i,  158. 


36  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

sary  experiences  of  the  human  soul,  but  that  they 
are  aroused  by  mystery,  and  dispelled  by  knowledge. 
In  their  view  all  that  concerns  the  Infinite  and  the 
Eternal  is  involved  in  impenetrable  mystery.  God 
is  the  Unknown  and  the  Unknowable.  Religion 
cannot  be  defined  in  doctrine,  nor  taught  in  text- 
books and  sermons,  nor  embodied  in  institutions. 
Such  men  discard  religious  teaching  and  religious 
institutions,  because  they  hold  that  the  invisible  lies 
beyond  the  realm  of  apprehension.  They  think,  if 
they  do  not  say,  with  Huxley,  "  truly  on  this  topic 
silence  is  golden;  while  speech  reaches  not  even 
the  dignity  of  sounding  brass  or  tinkling  cymbal, 
and  is  but  the  weary  clatter  of  an  endless  logo- 
machy." 1 

To  those  who  have  clearly  defined  their  views, 
even  to  themselves,  as  thus  anti-religious  or  imre- 
ligious,  must  be  added  a  larger  number  of  men  and 
women  whose  education  has  taught  them  that  the 
intellectual  forms  in  which  religion  has  expressed 
itself  in  the  past  are  not  consistent  with  truths 
clearly  revealed  to  us  by  modern  investigation. 
They  can  no  longer  believe  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Bible,  or  in  the  historicity  of  miracles  as  mira- 
cles are  understood  by  them,  or  in  the  fall  of 
man  and  the  entrance  of  imperfection  and  sin  into 
the  world  as  a  consequence  of  that  faU,  or  even  in 
the  personality  of  God,  which  they  identify  with  the 
anthropomorphic  conceptions  of  Deity  formed  by 
1  T.  H.  Huxley :  Hume,  p.  183. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        37 

them  in  their  childhood ;  and  as  these  intellectual 
forms  of  religion  are  still  in  their  minds  identified 
with  the  Church  and  its  teachings,  they  either  at- 
tend the  Church  and  listen  to  those  teachings  with 
impatience  or  indifference,  or  discard  both  the 
Church  and  the 'ministry  altogether. 

More  than  either,  probably  more  than  all  these 
classes  combined,  are  those  who  discard  the  institu- 
tions of  religion,  not  because  they  discard  religion, 
but  because  they  think  that  religion  is  so  pervasive, 
so  universal,  so  fimdamental  an  instinct  of  human- 
ity that  institutions  of  religion  are  no  longer  needed. 
Religion  is  a  spirit,  and  aU  the  experiences  of  life 
are  engaged  in  promoting  and  developing  it.  Time 
was,  such  men  say  to  themselves,  when  religious 
institutions  were  indispensable,  and  they  are  still 
indispensable  to  certain  classes  in  the  community. 
They  are,  therefore,  to  be  respected,  encouraged,  per- 
haps supported ;  but  the  world  is  outgrowing  them ; 
other  instrumentalities  have  come  in  to  develop 
the  religious  spirit  and  to  make  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganizations unnecessary.  The  apostle  Peter  cata- 
logues the  elements  which  go  to  make  up  a  divinely 
organized  character:  "Add  to  your  faith  virtue, 
and  to  virtue  knowledge,  and  to  knowledge  temper- 
ance, and  to  temperance  patience,  and  to  patience 
godliness,  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness,  and 
to  brotherly  kindness  love."  ^  Various  instrumen- 
talities in  society,  say  such  non-churchgoers,  are  de- 
1  2  Pet.  i,  5-7. 


38  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

veloping  these  virtues  in  man  as  well  or  better  than 
rituals  and  sermons.  Athletics  produce  virtue,  or 
manliness.  The  requirements  of  business  promote 
temperance,  because  drinking  men  are  no  longer 
wanted  iu  positions  of  trust.  Daily  life,  by  the  bur- 
dens which  it  lays  upon  us,  develops  patience  as  no 
preacher  can  develop  it.  Social  intercourse  evokes 
in  us  brotherly  kindness.  The  home,  the  wife,  the 
children  inspire  in  us  love.  There  remain  in  the 
apostle's  catalogue  faith  and  godliness.  Concerning 
these  two  qualities  such  skeptics  are  silent.  Perhaps 
in  confidential  conversation  they  will  admit  that  the 
old  religion  produced  certain  qualities  of  piety  and 
reverence  which  modem  scientific  thought,  business 
activity,  and  social  affiliations  do  nothing  to  pro- 
duce, but  if  so,  they  will  regard  the  loss  with  mild 
regret,  as  they  regard  the  lost  arts  of  a  bygone 
civilization ;  possibly  they  may  say  with  Frederic 
Harrison  and  the  Humanists,  more  probably  they 
will  think  without  saying,  that  the  new  reverence 
for  Humanity  must  take  the  place  of  the  old  rever- 
ence for  God.  Says  the  author  of  "  Letters  from  a 
Chinese  Official : " 

Humanity  they  [the  Chinese]  are  taught  as  a  being 
spiritual  and  eternal  manifesting  itself  in  time  in  a  series 
of  generations.  This  being  is  the  mediator  between 
heaven  and  earth,  between  the  ultimate  ideal  and  the 
existing  fact.  By  labor  incessant  and  devout  to  raise 
earth  to  heaven,  to  realize  in  fact  the  good  that  exists  as 
yet  only  in  idea  —  that  is  the  end  and  purpose  of  human 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        39 

life,  and  in  fulfilling  it  we  achieve  and  maintain  our 
unity,  each  with  every  other  and  all  with  the  Divine. 
Here  surely  is  a  faith  not  unworthy  to  be  called  a  reli- 
gion.^ 

If  faith  is  looking  upon  the  things  that  are  un- 
seen, this  is  not  faith.  If  religion  is  a  perception  of 
the  Infinite,  this  is  not  religion.  Looking  at  one's 
self  in  the  mirror  and  worshiping  one's  own  image 
is  not  reverence.  Spelling  humanity  with  a  capital 
H  does  not  make  it  divine.  But  this  reverence  for 
an  idealized  humanity  is  offered  by  a  few  and  ac- 
cepted by  many  as  a  substitute  for  that  religion 
which  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 

Other  men  in  the  community,  and  these  probably 
a  stiU  greater  number,  regard  religion  as  impor- 
tant, and  even  the  Church  and  the  institutions  of 
religion  as  valuable,  but  not  for  themselves.  "I 
always  thought,"  says  Moses  Pennel, "  that  my  wife 
must  be  one  of  the  sort  of  women  who  pray."^ 
Moses  Pennel  is  a  type.  Many  men  desire  the  in- 
spirations and  restraints  of  religion  for  others,  but 
do  not  desire  those  inspirations,  still  less  those  re- 
straints, for  themselves.  They  are  glad  to  have 
their  children  in  the  Sunday-school  and  their  wives 
in  the  church,  but  they  do  not  go  themselves ;  they 
say  in  moments  of  confidence.  When  we  go  to 
church  we  get  nothing  from  it,  we  do  not  hear  as 
good  music  as  at  the  opera,  and  the  minister  tells 

^  Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official,  p.  52. 

2  Harriet  Beecher  Sto\?e :  Pearl  of  Orr^s  Island,  p.  321. 


40  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

US  nothing  we  did  not  know  before ;    we  prefer 
to  remain  at  home  and  read. 

To  these  classes  must  be  added  still  another,  and 
a  not  inconsiderable  one,  of  those  who  discard  the 
Church  because  it  seems  to  them  to  discard  religion. 
Liberal  leaders  have  told  them  that  Christianity  is  a 
life,  not  a  doctrine,  that  the  inspiration  of  this  life 
is  to  be  found  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  ideal  of  this 
life  in  his  teachings  and  his  character,  and  they 
declare  that  they  do  not  find  this  ideal  presented  or 
this  inspiration  afforded  by  the  Christian  Church. 
This  class  is  thus  described  by  the  editor  of  "  The 
Hibbert  Journal :  " 

The  type  of  plain  man  we  are  considering  wants  a 
more  valid  proof  than  has  yet  been  offered  that  the 
world  is  serious  when  it  professes  the  Christianity  which 
is  a  life  and  not  a  creed.  He  doubts,  moreover, 
whether  he  could  seriously  and  honestly  make  such  a 
profession  himself.  He  is  by  all  operative  standards  an 
honorable  man;  he  deals  honestly  in  trade,  is  a  good 
husband  and  father,  faithful  to  his  friends  (though  per- 
haps a  little  hard  on  his  foes),  public-spirited,  patriotic, 
munificent.  But  to  pretend  that  the  ethics  of  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  are  his,  even  in  their  spirit,  would  be 
a  flagrant  falsehood.  He  admires  the  beauty,  he  may 
even  admit  the  philosophic  truth  of  the  principle  which 
bids  him  lose  his  life  to  save  it;  but  he  is  an  acting 
member  of  a  community  whose  industrial  life  is  based 
on  the  opposite  principle  of  competition  !  He  knows 
the  danger  of  riches ;  remembers  the  saying  about  lay- 
ing up  treasure  on  earth ;  but  willingly  and  eagerly  takes 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        41 

his  part  in  an  economic  system  which  rests  on  the  accu- 
mulation of  wealth.  He  is  a  firm  supporter  of  the 
criminal  law ;  holds  that  great  armaments  are  necessary 
to  the  life  of  nations ;  takes  pride  in  the  majesty  and 
power  of  the  British  fleet;  upholds  the  Government 
when  it  shakes  the  mailed  fist  in  the  face  of  foreign 
nations,  —  and  he  will  not  sully  his  conscience  by  pre- 
tending that  he  who  does  these  things  is  a  believer,  in 
any  sense  whatever,  in  non-resistance  to  evil,  in  unlimited 
forgiveness,  or  in  the  principle  of  turning  the  other 
cheek.  If  these  commandments  are  involved  in  the 
Christianity  which  is  a  life,  if  obedience  to  them  is  re- 
quired of  the  followers  of  Christ,  then  he  is  no  Christian, 
and  will  not  pretend  to  be.^ 

Perhaps  if,  when  he  went  to  church,  he  heard  the 
Christian  ideal  simply  and  clearly  defined,  and  the 
violations  of  that  ideal  current  in  human  society 
candidly  and  courageously  condemned,  he  might 
continue  to  go,  though  he  fell  under  that  condem- 
nation himself ;  but  he  declines  to  go  to  a  church 
which  substitutes  a  lower  ideal,  condones  where  it 
should  condemn,  or  offers  acceptance  of  a  creed, 
long  or  short,  simple  or  complex,  or  participation 
in  a  ritual,  liturgical  or  non-liturgical,  for  a  sim- 
ple and  real  acceptance  of  the  precepts  and  prin- 
ciples of  Jesus  Christ,  and  an  honest  endeavor 
to  apply  them  to  the  current  problems  of  modern 
life. 

The  view  of  these  classes,  more  or  less  clearly 
defined,  more  or  less  consciously  entertained,  that 

1  The  Hibbert  Journal,  January,  1904,   pp.  254,  255. 


42  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  institutions  of  religion  are  no  longer  necessary 
for  the  promotion  of  the  higher  life,  or  that  the  in- 
stitutions of  religion  as  they  exist  in  this  country 
to-day  no  longer  do  promote  the  higher  life,  seems 
to  receive  some  confirmation  from  the  fact  that 
certain  functions  which  the  Church  once  performed 
it  no  longer  needs  to  perform,  because  other  insti- 
tutions have  come  in  to  take  its  place  and  to  do  its 
work  in  these  departments. 

I.  The  Church  was  originally  the  administrator  of 
charity.  When  the  Church  was  bom  there  were  no 
organized  charities  in  the  world.  There  are  expres- 
sions of  charity  in  the  ancient  moralists,  no  doubt, 
but  charity,  organically,  wisely,  systematically  ad- 
ministered, did  not  exist  in  pagan  Rome,  and 
was  not  developed  by  pagan  literature.  Says  Mr. 
Lecky: 

However  fully  they  [the  Stoics]  might  reconcile  in 
theory  their  principles  with  the  widest  and  most  active 
benevolence,  they  could  not  wholly  counteract  the  prac- 
tical evil  of  a  system  which  declared  war  against  the 
whole  emotional  side  of  our  being,  and  reduced  human 
virtue  to  a  kind  of  majestic  egotism.  .  .  .  The  frame- 
work or  theory  of  benevolence  might  be  there,  but  the 
animating  spirit  was  absent.  Men  who  taught  that  the 
husband  or  father  should  look  with  perfect  indifference 
on  the  death  of  his  wife  or  his  child,  and  that  the  philo- 
sopher, though  he  may  shed  tears  of  pretended  sympathy 
in  order  to  console  his  suffering  friend,  must  suffer  no 
real  emotion  to  penetrate  his  heart,  could  never  found  a 
true  or  lasting  religion  of  benevolence.   Men  who  refused 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        43 

to   recognize  pain  and  sickness  as  evils  were   scarcely- 
likely  to  be  very  eager  to  relieve  them  in  others.* 

When,  therefore,  the  Christian  churches  came 
into  existence,  they  had  not  only  to  inspire  the  spirit 
of  benevolence,  but  they  had  also  to  organize  the 
activities  of  benevolence.  There  were  no  organiza- 
tions into  which  they  could  put  the  expression  of 
the  new  life.  There  were  no  charitable  organiza- 
tions ;  and  the  Church  was  not  in  touch  with  the 
great  political  organizations  and  could  not  affect 
them.  If  the  work  of  benevolence  was  to  be  done 
at  all,  it  had  to  be  done  by  the  Church ;  and  the 
Church,  therefore,  became  an  organized  charitable 
society.  This  work  of  charity  done  by  the  Church 
became  one  of  its  most  prominent  pieces  of  work. 
Says  Edwin  Hatch : 

The  teaching  of  the  earliest  Christian  homily  which 
has  come  down  to  us  [Clement  on  Romans  xvi]  elevates 
almsgiving  to  the  chief  place  in  Christian  practice: 
"  Fasting  is  better  than  prayer,  almsgiving  is  better  than 
fasting :  blessed  is  the  man  who  is  found  perfect  therein, 
for  almsgiving  lightens  the  weight  of  sin."  It  was  in  this 
point  that  the  Christian  communities  were  unlike  the 
other  associations  which  surrounded  them.  Other  asso- 
ciations were  charitable:  but  whereas  in  them  charity 
was  an  accident,  in  Christian  associations  it  was  of  the 
essence.  They  gave  to  the  religious  revival  which  almost 
always  accompanies  a  period  of  social  strain  the  special 
direction  of  philanthropy.    They  brought  into  the  Euro- 

*  W.  E.  H.  Lecky :  History  of  European  Morals,  i,  pp.  201, 


t44  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRT 

pean  world  that  regard  for  the  poor  which  had  beeD  for 
centuries  the  burden  of  Jewish  hymns.^ 

Out  of  these  conditions  grew  the  organization  of 
the  early  churches.  They  were  almoners  of  charity 
no  less  than  preachers  of  religion.  The  spirit  of 
charity  which  they  created  they  also  organized ;  the 
gifts  which  they  inspired  they  also  distributed.  That 
spirit  of  humanity  which  leads  the  rich  to  provide 
for  the  poor,  and  the  competent  to  care  for  the 
incompetent,  —  the  deaf  and  blind  and  sick  and 
weak-minded,  —  existed  only  very  feebly,  and  only 
in  exceptional  individuals,  outside  of  the  Christian 
Church  ;  and  as  this  spirit  of  humanity  was  dis- 
tinctively and  almost  exclusively  a  church  as  well 
as  a  Christian  virtue,  its  organic  exercise  was  nat- 
urally intrusted  to  church  officers.  Out  of  this 
charitable  work  grew,  as  Dr.  Hatch  tells  us,  the 
bishopric. 

But  in  our  time  the  conditions  have  entirely 
changed,  —  changed  because  the  Church  has  done 
its  fundamental  work  so  thoroughly.  The  spirit  of 
humanity  is  still  a  Christian  virtue ;  but  it  is  no 
longer  a  distinctively  church  virtue.  The  Church 
has  so  permeated  Christendom  with  the  spirit  of 
humanity  that  it  no  longer  needs  administer  through 
its  own  organism  the  spirit  of  charity  which  it  has 
inspired.  The  city,  the  state,  the  nation,  have  be- 
come charitable  organizjations.    The  system  of  penol- 

1  Edwin  Hatch :   Organization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches^ 
pp.  35, 36.  Gomp.  A.  P.  Stanley :  Christian  Institutions^  pp.  210,  211. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        46 

ogy  has  become  a  system  of  reform.  Hospitals  and 
poorhouses  and  orphan  asylums  are  founded,  some 
by  the  political  organism,  others  by  private  enter- 
prise. And  it  is  a  little  difficult  for  the  philosopher 
to  see  why  church  charities  should  exist  to  any 
great  extent.  Why  should  we  have  a  Presbyterian 
hospital  and  an  Episcopal  hospital  ?  Is  there  a  Pres- 
byterian method  of  setting  a  broken  bone,  or  an 
Episcopalian  method  of  curing  typhoid  fever  ?  Nor 
can  it  be  said  that  church  hospitals  are  doing  any 
better  or  any  different  work  than  the  hospitals 
which  are  inspired  by  the  Christian  Church,  but  not 
directed  by  it. 

It  is  not,  then,  the  function  of  the  Christian 
minister,  primarily,  to  be  an  almoner  of  public 
charity,  or  to  be  an  administrator  of  philanthropic 
work.  Whether  it  is  best  that  a  church  should  be 
what  men  call  an  institutional  church  or  not,  will 
depend  altogether  upon  circumstances.  If  it  is 
situated  in  a  community  where  that  kind  of  work 
is  already  adequately  and  sufficiently  done,  or  in  a 
community  where  it  can  inspire  men  to  do  it  by 
other  than  distinctively  church  organizations,  that 
is  the  better  way.  It  is  better  to  inspire  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  to  carry  on  a  gymna- 
sium than  for  the  Church  to  carry  on  a  gymnasium. 
It  is  better  to  inspire  the  city  to  maintain  a  hos- 
pital than  for  the  Church  to  maintain  a  hospital. 

Nevertheless,  there  remains  a  very  fundamental 
charitable  work  for  the  Church  to  do.   Much  insist' 


46  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ence  is  put  in  our  time  upon  organized  charity, — and 
not  too  much ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  to  put  all 
the  emphasis  on  the  organization  and  none  on  the 
charity.  The  primary  function  of  the  Church  is  to 
inspire  in  men  the  spirit  of  love,  not  to  organize, 
direct,  or  administer  that  love  when  it  has  been 
inspired.  There  are  other  organizations  —  national, 
state,  voluntary  —  to  carry  out  the  requirements  of 
that  spirit  whenever  and  wherever  it  exists.  But 
what  institution,  other  than  the  Church,  makes  it 
a  direct,  specific,  and  definite  object  to  create,  fos- 
ter, and  develop  the  spirit  of  charity?  The  cry. 
More  money  for  hospitals  and  less  for  churches, 
is  like  the  cry.  More  water  for  the  reservoir  and 
less  for  the  springs.  For  the  greater  proportion  of 
the  money  for  all  benevolent  and  educational  in- 
stitutions supported  by  private  contributions  comes 
either  directly  from  the  churches,  or  indirectly  from 
them  through  men  whose  education  has  been  re- 
ceived in  the  churches  and  whose  ideals  have  been 
obtained  there.  The  Church  is  to  be  measured,  not 
by  the  institutions  it  sustains,  but  by  the  inspiration 
it  imparts. 

Even  where  the  conditions  of  the  community  are 
such  as  to  require  an  institutional  church,  the  more 
institutional  it  is,  the  more  necessary  that  it  should 
be  made  inspirational.  These  subsidiary  institu- 
tions, —  the  boys'  club,  the  girls'  club,  the  gym- 
nasium, the  kindergarten,  —  as  carried  on  by  a 
church,   are   but  the  instruments   by  which   the 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        47 

Church  is  to  serve  men  in  the  higher  Hfe.  The 
clergyman  who  allows  himself  to  forget  his  great 
work,  which  is  the  promotion  of  the  life  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man,  in  order  that  he  may  establish 
a  philanthropic  institution  or  a  gymnasium  or  a 
kindergarten  or  a  sewing-school,  allows  himself 
to  be  diverted  from  the  higher  and  nobler  service 
to  one  that  is  less  important.  It  is  a  great  mistake 
if  the  modem  minister  substitutes  the  charitable 
administration  of  a  philanthropic  machine  for  the 
inspirational  work  of  the  pulpit,  kindling  in  men 
the  flame  of  human  love  and  of  godly  reverence.  To 
do  this  is  to  do  exactly  the  reverse  of  that  which 
the  Apostles  counseled  ;  they  said,  "  It  is  not  reason 
that  we  should  leave  the  word  of  God,  and  serve 
tables."  ^  The  word  of  God  is  the  revealing  of  God 
to  men ;  serving  tables  is  philanthropic  ministry  to 
the  lesser,  though  more  apparent,  needs  of  men. 

n.  A  second  function  which  the  Church  exercised 
in  the  olden  time,  and  which  it  no  longer  has  occa- 
sion to  exercise,  was  that  of  government.  When  the 
Koman  Empire  feU  into  ruins,  and  the  Imperial 
autocracy  was  dissolved,  little  or  nothing  remained 
of  government  for  a  time  but  the  municipal  system. 
The  members  of  the  municipal  governing  bodies 
became  discouraged  and  apathetic,  and  the  priests 
and  bishops,  fuU  of  the  new  life,  naturally  and 
rightfully  offered  themselves  to  do  the  work  of 
superintendence  and  administration  for  the  muni- 

^  1  Acts  vi,  2. 


48  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

cipalities.  They  became  the  principal  municipal 
magistrates,  because  they  were  the  men  of  force  and 
honor.  "  We  should  be  wrong,"  says  Guizot,  "  to 
reproach  them  for  this,  to  tax  them  with  usurpa- 
tion. It  was  all  in  the  natural  course  of  things ; 
the  clergy  alone  were  morally  strong  and  animated ; 
they  became  everywhere  powerful.  Such  is  the  law 
of  the  universe."  ^ 

As  the  result  of  this  cooperation  with  the  civil 
authorities  in  the  administration  of  the  municipal- 
ities, political  power  gradually  passed  over  to  the 
bishops,  and  then  finally  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
and  there  ensued  the  next  stage  of  political  devel- 
opment, in  which  the  clergy  cooperated  with  the 
civilians  in  the  administration  of  the  State.  They 
divided  the  functions,  the  clergy  taking  the  ecclesi- 
astical side  of  life,  the  civilians  the  civil  side  of 
life.  Under  this  system  the  Church  and  the  State 
became  one,  as  they  had  been  one  in  the  Hebrew 
Commonwealth.  The  identification  of  the  two  in 
one  organism  is  thus  described  by  Professor  James 
Bryce: 

Thus  the  Holy  Roman  Church  and  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  are  one  and  the  same  thing,  in  two  aspects ;  and 
Catholicism,  the  principle  of  the  universal  Christian  soci- 
ety, is  also  Romanism ;  that  is,  rests  upon  Rome  as  the 
origin  and  type  of  its  universality ;  manifesting  itself  in 
a  mystic  dualism  which  corresponds  to  the  two  natures 
of  its  Founder.   As  divine  and  eternal,  its  head  is  the 

^  Guizot :  History  of  Civilization  in  Eurcpe,  i,  36. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        49 

Pope,  to  whom  souls  have  been  entrusted;  as  human 
and  temporal,  the  Emperor,  commissioned  to  rule  men's 
bodies  and  acts. 

But  this,  which  Mr.  Bryce  well  calls  "  the  one 
perfect  and  self-consistent  scheme  of  the  union  of 
Church  and  State,"  proved  to  be  impracticable  ;  in 
fact,  was  attained  only  at  a  few  points  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

It  was  finally  supplanted  by  another  view  of  their 
relation,  which,  professing  to  be  a  development  of  a 
principle  recognized  as  fundamental,  the  superior  impor- 
tance of  the  religious  life,  found  increasing  favor  in  the 
eyes  of  fervent  churchmen.  Declaring  the  Pope  sole 
representative  on  earth  of  the  Deity,  it  concluded  that 
from  him,  and  not  directly  from  God,  must  the  Empire 
be  held,  —  held  feudally,  it  was  said  by  many,  —  and  it 
thereby  thrust  down  the  temporal  power,  to  be  the  slave 
instead  of  the  sister  of  the  spiritual.  Nevertheless,  the 
Papacy  in  her  meridian,  and  under  the  guidance  of  her 
greatest  minds,  of  Hildebrand,  of  Alexander,  of  Inno- 
cent, not  seeking  to  abolish  or  absorb  the  civil  govern- 
ment, required  only  its  obedience,  and  exalted  its  dignity 
against  all  save  herself.^ 

Thus  there  were  three  stages  in  the  development 
of  the  political  power  of  the  Church :  in  the  first, 
the  clergy  went  into  politics  because  there  was  no 
one  else  to  administer  public  affairs ;  in  the  second, 
the  clergy  divided  political  functions  with  the  lay- 
men, they  taking  one  part,  the  laymen  the  other ; 
in  the  third  and  last,  the  clergy  assumed  the  respon- 

^  James  Bryce :   The  Hdy  Boman  Empire,  pp.  106-109. 


50  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

sibility  of  telling  the  laymen  what  they  ought  to  do, 
and  enforced  their  counsels  by  spiritual  authority. 

By  common  consent,  in  America,  the  first  two  of 
these  methods  of  clerical  participation  in  politics 
are  abandoned.  It  is  imiversally  agreed  that  it  is 
not  the  function  of  clergymen,  as  clergymen,  to 
manage  legislatures  or  municipal  assemblies.  If 
Dr.  Washington  Gladden  goes  into  the  Common 
Coimcil  of  Columbus,  he  is  not  there  in  his  capacity 
of  clergyman.  There  is  nothing  in  American  poli- 
tics which  corresponds  to  the  participation  of  the 
Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  English 
government,  through  their  seats  iu  the  House  of 
Lords. 

But  there  are  those  who  think  that  the  Christian 
ministry  ought  to  tell  the  people  how  to  perform 
their  political  duties.  When  those  duties  were  per- 
formed by  the  Emperor,  it  was  the  Pope's  duty  to 
tell  the  Emperor  how  to  perform  them ;  now  that 
they  are  performed  by  all  the  people,  ought  not 
modern  ministers  to  tell  the  people  how  to  perform 
them?  In  other  words,  ought  not  the  minister  to 
preach  politics  ?  This  question  cannot  be  answered 
categorically.  It  cannot  be  answered  unqualifiedly 
in  the  negative,  for  all  duties  are  proper  themes  for 
the  minister,  and  free  citizenship  imposes  certain 
duties  on  the  citizen.  It  cannot  be  answered  un- 
qualifiedly in  the  affirmative,  for  in  politics  ques- 
tions of  ethics,  questions  of  policy,  and  questions 
concerning  party  leaders  and  party  organizations  are 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        51 

so  interwoven  that  it  is  often  impossible  to  preach 
on  the  current  political  questions  without  becom- 
ing the  advocate  of  one  side  of  a  question  of  politi- 
cal expediency,  if  not  the  apologist  or  eulogist  of  a 
party  candidate  or  a  party  organization. 

There  are  two  things  necessary  to  good  govern- 
ment in  a  free  commonwealth :  the  first  is  a  diffused 
spirit  of  patriotism,  justice,  and  good-will ;  the 
second  is  the  organization  of  this  spirit  of  patriot- 
ism, justice,  and  good-wiU  in  laws  and  political 
institutions.  It  is  the  function  of  the  lawyer,  the 
statesman,  the  political  reformer,  to  formulate  the 
spirit  of  patriotism,  justice,  and  good-will  in  laws 
and  institutions ;  it  is  the  function  of  the  minister 
to  develop  the  spirit  of  patriotism,  justice,  and  good- 
will that  it  may  be  in  the  community  to  be  formu- 
lated. It  is  the  function  of  the  minister  to  inculcate 
by  every  means  in  his  power  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple that  the  Indian  in  this  country  is  to  be  treated 
with  justice,  that  he  is  not  to  be  robbed  and  kept 
in  ignorance  and  denied  libei'ty ;  but  the  questions, 
How  shall  we  frame  our  laws  for  this  purpose? 
ShaU  the  Indian  be  under  the  War  Department  or 
under  the  Interior  Department  ?  ShaU  the  reserva- 
tion be  broken  up,  and  in  what  way?  do  not 
belong  to  him,  as  minister,  to  solve. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  statesman  must  be 
an  opportunist  if  he  is  to  succeed ;  that  is,  he  must 
consider  the  immediate  effect  of  the  present  action. 
But  we  need  other  men  in  the  community  than  op- 


62  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

portunists.  We  need  men  with  a  long  look  ahead ; 
men  who  are  not  considering  what  will  be  the  im- 
mediate effect ;  men  who  consider  what  wiU  be  the 
ultimate  effect  of  human  action  on  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Such  is  the  minister.  He  is  or  should  be  an 
idealist.  When  an  idealist  goes  into  politics  and 
undertakes  to  carry  out  his  ideals  in  political  action, 
he  fails ;  when  an  opportunist  goes  into  the  pulpit 
and  undertakes  to  measure  human  policies  by  imme- 
diate results,  he  fails.  So  long  as  Savonarola  pro- 
claimed the  great  fundamental  principles  of  truth 
and  righteousness  and  justice,  he  was  a  great  power 
in  Italy ;  when  he  undertook  to  become  a  political 
leader  and  frame  the  policies  for  the  State,  he  lost 
his  power. 

The  function  of  the  minister  is  not  to  teU  men 
how  they  ought  to  vote  in  the  immediate  issue  before 
the  community.  His  function  is  to  inspire  in  his 
congregation  the  faith  that  God  is  in  his  world 
working  out  his  kingdom,  and  the  purpose  to  work 
with  him  to  that  end.  It  is  to  lift  men  above  the 
issues  of  the  hour  to  the  eternal  issues ;  above  the 
party  conflicts  of  the  hour  to  the  eternal  conflict 
between  truth  and  error,  light  and  darkness,  hu- 
manity and  injustice,  selfishness  and  generosity, 
good  and  evil,  in  which  all  temporary  conflicts  are 
but  episodes.  It  is  to  cause  them  to  consider  the 
effect  of  their  action,  not  upon  their  own  personal 
interests,  nor  upon  those  of  their  party,  but  upon 
the  kingdom  of  God.    If  the  minister,  strong  in 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        63 

that  perception  of  God  whicli  constitutes  the  essence 
of  religion,  perceives  him  in  public  affairs,  and  causes 
his  congregation  to  look  there  for  him  also,  he  may 
contribute  nothing  directly  to  the  solution  of  tariff, 
or  currency,  or  colonial  questions,  on  which  the 
nation  is  to  vote ;  but  he  will  do  what  is  far  more 
important,  —  he  will  promote  that  spirit  of  divine 
justice  which  clarifies  the  mind  from  the  disturbing 
influences  of  pride  and  passion,  and  that  long  look 
ahead  which  is  the  best  guide  for  the  action  of 
each  day.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  minister  fails  to 
do  this,  no  one  else  will  or  can  fulfill  this  function ; 
it  will  remain  unfulfilled. 

If,  then,  I  could  reach  my  brethren  in  the  ministry 
with  my  pen,  my  message  to  them  would  be  this  : 
Deal  with  aU  the  public  issues  of  your  time,  but  deal 
with  them  exclusively  in  their  relation  to  the  king- 
dom of  God.  As  a  citizen,  you  may  be  a  Repub- 
lican or  a  Democrat,  a  Populist  or  a  Prohibitionist, 
but  in  your  pulpit  be  neither.  Do  not  undertake 
to  use  your  ministerial  influence  to  promote  the 
success  of  special  candidates  or  parties  or  political 
policies.  It  is  not  certain  that  you  are  infallible ; 
it  is  very  certain  that  your  congregation  will  not 
believe  that  you  are.  You  and  I  are  men  of  like 
passions  as  other  men.  In  the  midst  of  a  heated 
political  campaign  we  ourselves  get  the  heats  of  the 
campaign  burning  like  a  fever  in  our  veins.  During 
the  Bryan  campaign  the  ministers  who  preached  on 
the  political  issue  in  the  East  assured  us  that  the 


64  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

gold  standard  was  the  only  honest  money,  and  the 
ministers  who  preached  in  Colorado  were  equally 
certain  that  free  silver  was  the  only  honest  money. 
Remember,  too,  that  there  are  men  who  are  shrewder 
than  you  are,  who  wiU  be  very  glad  to  get  your 
influence  to  promote  the  result  of  the  election  of 
to-day,  but  who  care  nothing  for  the  relation  of  that 
vote  or  of  your  influence  to  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  world.  Do  not  work  for  parties,  nor  for  can- 
didates, nor  for  immediate  results ;  do  not  be  an 
opportunist.  Carry  your  idealism  into  all  your 
teaching  concerning  political  questions.  Work  for 
the  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  not  for  the 
triumph  of  a  political  party.  Do  not  imagine  that 
the  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  identical  with 
or  even  dependent  upon  the  trimnph  of  a  political 
party.  Remember  that  there  are  honest  men  in  all 
parties  and  dishonest  men  in  all,  and  seek  not  to 
promote  victory  for  the  party  of  your  choice,  but 
to  promote  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  honest,  what- 
soever things  are  pure,  in  men  of  all  parties  and  in 
men  of  none. 

III.  A  third  function  which  the  Church  formerly 
exercised,  and  which  is  now  better  exercised  by 
other  instrumentalities,  is  that  of  secular  education. 

In  the  first  century  the  only  schools  for  the 
common  people  were  those  connected  with  the  Jew- 
ish synagogues.  Neither  Rome  nor  Greece  made 
any  provision   for  the   education  of  the  common 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        65 

people.  Christianity  inherited  from  Judaism,  with 
its  free  spirit  and  its  free  political  institutions,  its 
educational  system.  The  Church  established,  with 
charities  for  the  poor,  schools  for  the  ignorant,  and 
for  a  long  time  these  parish  schools  furnished  the 
only  provision  of  any  kind  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  poor.  Out  of  these  parish  schools 
grew  institutions  of  higher  learning,  mainly  devoted, 
however,  to  preparation  of  an  elect  few  for  the  cler- 
ical profession.  Protestants  ought  always  to  hold 
in  grateful  remembrance  the  monasteries,  not  only 
because  in  their  libraries  they  preserved  the  manu- 
scripts which  have  brought  down  to  our  time  the 
best  thoughts  of  the  ancients,  whether  pagan  or 
Christian,  secular  or  religious,  but  also  because  they 
handed  over  to  the  Christian  community  from  the 
Hebrew  community  the  provision  which  the  latter 
had  made  for  popular  education.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  Koman  Catholics  ought  not  to  forget  that  this 
educational  work  of  the  Church  was  carried  on,  not 
because  the  Church  believed  this  to  be  her  prime 
function,  but  because  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
work,  and  there  was  no  other  organization  willing 
or  able  to  undertake  it.  It  is  not  the  primary  func- 
tion of  the  Church  to  furnish  secular  instruction. 
Says  the  Kev.  Thomas  Bouquillon,  Professor  of 
Moral  Theology  at  the  Catholic  University  of 
America,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

The  Church  has  received  from  her  Divine  Founder 
the  mission  to  teach  the  supernatural  truths.  .  .  .  But 


66  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  Church  has  not  received  the  mission  to  make  known 
the  human  sciences,  she  has  not  been  established  for  the 
progress  of  nations  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  no  more 
than  to  render  them  powerful  and  wealthy.  .  .  .  Her 
duty  of  teaching  human  sciences  is  only  indirect  —  a 
work  of  charity  or  of  necessity :  of  charity  when  they 
are  not  sufficiently  taught  by  others  who  have  that  duty ; 
of  necessity  when  they  are  badly  taught,  that  is,  taught 
in  a  sense  opposed  to  supernatural  truth  and  morality. 
This  is  why  the  missionary,  setting  foot  in  a  savage  land, 
though  he  begins  with  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  very 
soon  establishes  schools.  .  .  .  There  are  men  who  seem 
to  assert  that  the  Church  has  received  the  mission  to 
teach  human  as  well  as  divine  science.  They  give  to  the 
words  of  Christ,  Euntes  docete  (go  and  teach),  an  indefi- 
nite interpretation.  But  such  an  interpretation  is  evi- 
dently false.* 

I  do  not  affirm  that  this  is  the  authoritative  posi- 
tion of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  on  this  subject. 
Probably  many  Roman  Catholic  authorities  would 
dissent  from  it.  Certainly  the  doctrine  that  fur- 
nishing education  is  the  primary  function  of  the 
State  is  still  hotly  denied  by  ecclesiastics,  both  Pro- 
testant and  Roman  Catholic,  in  Europe.  The  reli- 
gious war  now  raging  in  France  is  the  result  of  an 
endeavor  by  the  State  to  take  the  work  of  teaching 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Church  into  its  own  hands. 
The  recent  Educational  Bill  in  England  is  the  re- 

1  Thomas  Bouquillon:  Education:  To  Whom  Does  it  Belong? 
See  also  two  other  pamphlets  by  the  same  author  and  with  same 
title :  (1)  A  Bejoinder  to  the  Civiltd,  Cattolica;  (2)  A  Rejoinder  to 
Critics* 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        57 

suit  of  an  endeavor  by  the  Church  to  recover  the 
supervision  and  control  of  the  educational  work  of 
that  country,  partially  taken  out  of  its  control  and 
lodged  in  that  of  the  state  authorities  by  a  previous 
administration. 

But  for  America  we  may  consider  this  question 
decided.  The  great  body  of  the  people,  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic,  agree  in  their  support  of  the 
public  school ;  and  this  means  that  they  agree  in 
their  belief  that  education  for  the  common  people 
is  to  be  furnished  by  the  State,  not  by  the  Church ; 
that  in  its  control  and  administration  it  is  to  be 
civil,  not  ecclesiastical.  There  will  probably  always 
be  private  schools  and  church  schools  in  America, 
but  they  will  be  the  exception.  The  education  of 
American  boys  and  girls  in  the  industries,  the  arts, 
and  the  sciences  wiU  be  mainly  furnished,  not  in 
parochial  but  in  public  schools,  not  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  clergy,  but  under  the  control  of  the  State. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  still  flourishing  denomina- 
tional colleges.  But  in  most  Protestant  communions 
these  are  denominational  in  name  rather  than  in 
reality,  in  the  control  to  which  they  are  intrusted, 
rather  than  in  any  doctrine  which  they  teach  or 
even  any  influence  which  they  exert. 

But  although  in  America  the  Church  has  rele- 
gated to  the  State  the  work  of  educating  the  youth 
in  the  arts  and  sciences,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
Church  has  no  longer  any  educational  function. 
Says  Professor  Huxley : 


68  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Education  is  the  instraction  of  the  intellect  in  the  laws 
of  Nature, — under  which  name  I  include  not  merely 
things  and  their  forces,  but  men  and  their  ways ;  and 
the  fashioning  of  the  affections  and  of  the  will  into  an 
earnest  and  loving  desire  to  move  in  harmony  with  those 
laws.  For  me,  education  means  neither  more  nor  less 
than  this.  Anything  which  professes  to  call  itself  educa- 
tion must  be  tried  by  this  standard,  and  if  it  fails  to 
stand  the  test,  I  will  not  call  it  education,  whatever  may 
be  the  force  of  authority,  or  of  numbers,  upon  the  other 
side.^ 

The  State  is,  in  the  main,  admirably  giving  in- 
struction of  the  intellect  in  the  laws  of  Nature; 
but  she  is  doing  little  or  nothing  directly  to  fashion 
the  affections  and  the  will  into  an  earnest  and 
loving  desire  to  move  in  harmony  with  those  laws. 
And  that  this  fashioning  of  the  affections  and  the 
wiU  is  quite  as  essential  as  the  instruction  of  the 
intellect  we  are  beginning  in  America  to  discover. 
Man  is  not  governed  by  his  reason ;  he  is  guided 
by  his  reason,  but  he  is  governed  by  his  emotive 
powers,  by  his  affections  and  his  will,  by  his 
appetites,  his  passions,  his  love  of  acquisition,  his 
love  of  approbation,  his  self-esteem,  or  by  his  rev- 
erence, his  conscience,  his  hope,  his  love.  A  man 
whose  intellect  is  well  instructed,  but  whose  affec- 
tions are  ill  trained,  is  more  poorly  educated  than 
one  whose  affections  are  weU  trained  and  whose 
intellect  is  ill  instructed;  as  an  ocean  steamer  is 
a  more  helpless  object  if  it  is  without  an  engine 

1  T.  H.  Huxley :  Science  and  Education,  p.  83. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        69 

tlian  if  it  is  without  a  rudder.  We  have  yet  to 
learn  how  in  this  country  to  organize  and  carry  on 
a  system  of  education  which  wiU  fulfill  the  defini- 
tion of  Professor  Huxley :  which  will  fashion  the 
affections  and  the  will,  as  well  as  instruct  the  in- 
tellect. 

This  is  not  to  be  done  by  dividing  education  into 
two  departments,  and  intrusting  the  instruction  of 
the  intellect  to  the  State  and  the  fashioning  of  the 
affections  to  the  Church  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  done  by 
estabhshing  a  state  church  in  order  to  give  in  the 
state  schools  instruction  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  A  Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  this  country 
has  in  a  pregnant  paragraph  intimated  the  way  in 
which  it  must  be  done.  Says  the  Right  Rev.  John 
J.  Keane,  D.  D. : 

A  school  is  not  made  a  Christian  school  by  taking  up 
a  good  deal  of  time  in  doctrinal  instruction  or  in  devo- 
tional exercises,  which  would  otherwise  be  spent  in  ac- 
quiring secular  knowledge.  Some  time,  indeed,  must  be 
given  to  these,  and  it  ought  to  be,  and  can  be,  made  the 
most  instructive  and  beneficial  part  of  the  school  hours ; 
but  that  time  need  not  be,  and  should  not  be,  so  long 
as  to  be  wearisome  to  the  pupils  or  damaging  to  other 
studies.  "What,  above  all,  make  it  a  Christian  school  are 
the  moral  atmosphere,  the  general  tone,  the  surround- 
ing objects,  the  character  of  the  teachers,  the  constant 
endeavor,  the  loving  tact,  the  gentle  skill,  by  which  the 
light  and  the  spirit  of  Christianity  —  its  lessons  for  the 
head,  for  the  heart,  for  the  whole  character —  are  made 
to  pervade  and  animate  the  whole   school-life  of  the 


60  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

child ;  just  as  the  good  parent  desires  that  they  should 
animate  his  whole  future  life  in  all  his  manifold  duties 
and  relations  as  man  and  as  citizen.  This  is  the  kind  of 
a  school  which  a  parent,  anxious  as  in  duty  bound  to 
give  his  child  as  thorough  Christian  training  as  possible, 
will  naturally  choose.^ 

As  it  is  not  the  primary  function  of  the  Church 
to  administer  charities,  but  it  is  its  primary  func- 
tion to  inspire  in  the  conmiunity  the  spirit  of 
charity ;  as  it  is  not  the  primary  function  of  the 
Church  to  govern,  nor  to  teU  either  emperors,  aris- 
tocracies, or  democracies  how  to  govern,  but  it  is 
its  primary  function  to  inspire  in  the  rulers  of  the 
land  the  spirit  of  justice  out  of  which  all  righteous 
policies  proceed ;  so  it  is  not  the  primary  function 
of  the  Church  to  administer  systems  of  education ; 
but  it  is  the  primary  function  of  the  Church  to  in- 
spire in  the  community  such  a  desire  to  fashion  the 
affections  and  the  will  in  conformity  to  the  laws 
of  life,  that  the  public  school  shall  fulfill  the  end  of 
education  as  defined  by  Professor  Huxley ;  that  is, 
shall  fashion  the  affections  and  the  will,  as  well  as 
instruct  the  intellect,  and  shall  be  a  Christian  school 
as  defined  by  Bishop  Keane ;  that  is.  Christian  in 
its  moral  atmosphere,  in  its  general  tone,  and  in  the 
character  of  its  teachers.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted 
that  it  is  a  greater  work  to  inspire  the  community 
with  the  spirit  of  charity  than  to  administer  partic- 
ular charities ;  to  inspire  all  parties  with  the  spirit 

1  The  Rt.  Rev.  John  J.  Keane :  Denominational  Schools,  p.  9. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        61 

of  justice  thao  to  counsel  particular  policies,  or 
contribute  to  the  victory  of  any  party ;  to  inspire 
the  school  system  with  Christlikeness  of  disposition 
than  to  teach  the  pupils  in  a  parochial  school  the 
tenets  and  ritual  of  a  denomination.  This  work 
the  Church  can  do'  only  by  being  true  to  its  specific 
work,  —  that  of  ministering  to  the  Christian  life  of 
the  community. 

Let  us  recur  to  our  definition  of  the  Christian 
religion:  The  Christian  religion  consists  in  such 
a  perception  of  the  Infinite,  as  manifested  in  the 
life  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  percep- 
tion is  able  to  promote  in  man  Christlikeness  of 
character.  Then  a  Christian  church  is  a  body  of 
men  and  women  who  possess  in  some  degree  such  a 
perception  of  the  Infinite  in  Jesus  Christ  and  some 
Christlikeness  of  character,  and  who  have  united  for 
the  purpose  of  imparting  to  others  that  perception, 
and  developing  in  others  that  character.  Catholics 
—  whether  Roman,  Greek,  or  Anglican  —  believe 
that  the  Church  was  organized  by  Jesus  Christ  him- 
seK,  and  that  loyalty  to  him  requires  his  disciples 
to  unite  with  that  historic  organization;  Protest- 
ants believe  that  any  men  and  women  possessing 
this  vision  of  God,  and  animated  by  this  purpose 
to  impart  it  and  its  fruits  to  others,  have  a  right  to 
constitute  themselves  a  church  of  Christ  for  that 
purpose.  But  both  Catholics  and  Protestants  agree 
that  a  church,  if  it  be  a  church  of  Christ,  must 
be   animated   by  the   spirit   of   faith,   hope,  and 


62  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

charity ;  faith,  that  is,  the  perception  of  the  Infinite 
in  Christ ;  hope,  that  is,  the  aspiration  for  Christ- 
likeness  which  that  perception  inspires ;  love,  that 
is,  a  desire  to  impart  both  the  perception  and  the 
resultant  life  to  the  world. 

The  message  of  the  Christian  Church  is  very- 
simple  and  very  profound.  It  is  not  a  series  of 
disjointed  messages,  though  many  counsels  of  per- 
fection grow  out  of  it.  It  cannot  be  adequately 
formulated  in  a  creed,  though  it  involves  a  new 
and  inspiring  conception  of  hfe.  It  cannot  be 
stated  in  words,  because  life  always  transcends 
definition ;  and  yet  a  few  simple  words  may  sufiice 
to  suggest  it.  It  is  that  God  is  not  the  Unknown 
and  the  Unknowable ;  that  though  he  transcends 
aU  our  definitions,  yet  he  is  a  self-revealing  God ; 
that  he  manifests  himseK  in  nature,  in  the  world's 
history,  in  hmnan  experience,  and  preeminently  in 
the  person  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ;  that 
through  Jesus  Christ  the  manifestations  of  God  in 
nature,  in  history,  and  in  human  experience  are 
interpreted,  and,  so  to  speak,  vocalized;  that  in 
knowing  God,  in  acquaintance  with  him,  in  parti- 
cipation in  his  life,  is  the  secret  of  life,  the  fruits 
of  which  are  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentle- 
ness, goodness,  fidelity,  meekness,  self-control ;  that 
love,  not  any  ordered  selfishness,  is  the  true  social 
bond ;  that  loyalty  to  God's  law,  not  any  divine 
right  of  kings  or  of  democracies,  is  the  foundation 
of  just  government;  that  character  building,  not 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE   MINISTRY         63 

any  mere  intellectual  instruction,  is  the  only  ade- 
quate education  ;  and,  finally,  that  the  secret  of  all 
social  well-being  is  the  individual  life,  the  secret 
of  all  individual  life  is  acquaintance  with  God,  and 
the  supreme  source  of  acquaintance  with  God  is 
Jesus  Christ. 

In  giving  this  message  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
more  than  an  instrument  of  social  reform.  It  is 
a  minister  to  life.  And  in  its  ministry  to  life  it 
responds  to  the  two  deepest  and  most  universal 
desires  of  mankind ;  the  desire  for  peace  and  the 
desire  for  power. 

Every  healthful  man  sometimes  looks  back  regret- 
fully upon  his  past.  He  is  conscious  of  blunders  in 
judgment,  of  aberrations  of  wiU,  of  deliberate  acts 
of  wrong-doing  which  have  brought  injury  upon  him- 
self and  upon  others.  He  wishes  that  he  could  live 
again  his  life,  or  some  particular  crisis  in  his  life. 
His  experience  answers  more  or  less  consciously 
to  the  expression  in  the  General  Confession  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer :  "  We  have  done  the 
things  which  we  ought  not  to  have  done,  and  we  have 
left  undone  the  things  which  we  ought  to  have  done," 
even  if  his  self-dissatisfaction  does  not  lead  him  to 
add,  "  and  there  is  no  health  in  us."  ^  Sometimes 
this  is  a  keen  sense  of  shame  for  some  specific  deed 
done  or  duty  neglected;  sometimes  it  is  a  vague 
feeling  of  self-condemnation,  without  clearly  defined 

1  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer :  The  Order  for  Daily  Morning^ 
and  for  Daily  Evening  Prayer. 


04  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

specific  cause ;  sometimes  it  is  a  passing  shadow, 
evanescent  and  uninfluential ;  sometimes  it  is  a 
morbid  self-condemnation,  depressing  the  spirits 
and  tending  toward  despair.  But  he  who  has  never 
felt  this  sense  of  remorse  in  some  one  of  its  various 
forms  is  singularly  lacking,  either  in  his  memory,  his 
ideals,  or  his  power  of  sitting  in  judgment  upon  his 
own  conduct  and  character.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  desire  which  the  human  soul  ever  possessed  is 
keener  or  more  overmastering  than  the  desire  which 
sometimes  possesses  it,  in  certain  phases  of  experi- 
ence, to  be  rid  of  its  ineradicable  past,  and  to  be  per- 
mitted to  begin  life  anew,unclogged  and  unburdened. 
The  other  spiritual  hunger  of  the  soul  relates  to 
the  future.  The  soul  is  conscious  of  undeveloped 
possibilities  in  itself ;  it  is  spurred  on  to  it  knows 
not  what  future  by  unsatisfied  aspirations.  It  longs 
to  do  and  to  be  more,  and  rather  to  be  than  to  do. 
It  has  in  the  sphere  of  moral  experience  aspirations 
which  may  be  compared  to  those  which  have  sum- 
moned the  greatest  musicians  and  the  greatest  artists 
to  their  careers.  This  sense  of  unsatisfied  aspiration 
differs  from  the  sense  of  remorse  in  that  it  relates 
to  the  future,  not  to  the  past ;  the  one  is  a  con- 
sciousness of  wrong  committed  or  duty  left  undone, 
the  other  of  life  incomplete.  The  cry  of  the  soul  in 
the  one  experience  is  that  of  Paul :  "  Who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  "  ^  The  cry  of 
the  other  is  that  of  Tennyson : 
>  Bom.  vii,  2i. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        65 

And  ah  for  a  man  to  arise  in  me, 
That  the  man  I  am  may  cease  to  be  !  ^ 

The  one  is  a  craving  for  peace,  the  other  for  achieve- 
ment. The  one  belongs  to  a  nature  which  dwells  in 
the  past,  the  other  to  a  nature  which  lives  in  the 
future.  Not  only  are  different  temperaments  dif- 
ferently affected,  the  one  being  more  conscious  of 
regret,  the  other  of  unsatisfied  aspiration  ;  but  the 
same  person  sometimes  experiences  the  one,  some- 
times the  other.  One  age  of  the  world  is  more  prone 
to  the  former,  another  age  to  the  latter.  In  our 
time  there  is  comparatively  little  experience  of  re- 
gret for  the  past.  There  is,  to  use  the  phrase  cur- 
rent in  theological  circles,  very  little  "  conviction  of 
sin."  The  age  has  its  face  set  toward  the  future. 
Its  ideals  lie  before  it,  not  behind.  It  is  eager,  ex- 
pectant, hopeful,  aspiring.  It  takes  no  time  to  look 
back,  not  even  time  enough  to  learn  the  lessons 
which  the  past  can  teach.  But  it  is  full  of  eager 
expectations  for  a  nobler  civilization,  a  better  distri- 
bution of  wealth,  more  harmonious  relations  between 
employer  and  employed,  juster  government,  better 
social  and  industrial  conditions,  a  nearer  approxi- 
mation to  brotherhood.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  hu- 
manity was  burdened  by  the  consciousness  of  past 
wrong-doing,  and  it  sought  relief  from  its  burden 
by  seclusion  from  the  world  in  monastic  retreats. 
In  the  present  age,  humanity  is  feverish  with  un- 
satisfied aspirations,  and  is  driven  by  its  fever  into 

1  Tennyson :  Maud,  X,  vi. 


66  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  world,  there  to  engage  in  ceaseless  and  exces- 
sive activities.  Like  a  mettlesome  steed  cruelly 
roweled  with  spurs,  yet  held  in  by  a  curb  bit,  is 
the  present  age,  spurred  on  by  aspiration  to  even 
greater  achievements,  yet  held  back  by  prudential 
self-interest  from  the  great  endeavor  and  the  greater 
seK-sacrifices  without  which  the  noblest  achieve- 
ments are  always  impossible. 

It  is  because  the  Christian  religion  professes  to 
be  able  to  satisfy  these  two  passionate  desires  of 
the  human  soul  —  the  desire  for  peace  and  the  de- 
sire for  achievement  —  that  it  possesses  the  attrac- 
tion which  the  failures  and  the  folly  of  its  adherents 
may  diminish,  but  cannot  destroy. 

Christianity  is  more  than  a  system  of  ethics  — 
though  it  has  revolutionized  ethics ;  more  than  a 
method  of  worship  —  though  it  has  furnished  a  new 
inspiration  to  worship  and  given  it  a  new  character ; 
more  than  a  philosophy  of  life  —  though  it  has 
given  to  life  a  new  interpretation.  It  is  a  new  life 
founded  on  a  historic  fact ;  take  that  fact  away  and 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  life  could  survive.  The 
belief  of  the  universal  Christian  Church  in  that 
fact  is  expressed  with  incomparable  simplicity  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  more  ancient  Christian 
creeds :  "  I  believe  ...  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
.  .  .  Who  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation  came 
down  from  heaven."  ^  What  is  the  relation  of  this 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Eternal  Father  from  whom 

1  The  Nicene  Creed. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        67 

he  came,  and  how  he  accomplishes  our  salvation, 
are  questions  to  which  Christian  philosophers  give 
different  answers.  But  aU  Christian  believers  accept 
the  historic  fact  that  there  is  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  he  came  down  from  heaven  for  us 
men  and  our  salvation.  In  its  possession  of  this 
faith  and  its  interest  in  this  fact  lies  the  secret  of 
the  power  of  the  Christian  Church.  Rob  it  of  this 
faith,  take  from  it  this  fact,  and  its  peculiar  power 
would  be  gone  ;  it  would  only  be  a  teacher  of  ethics, 
or  a  school  of  philosophy,  or  a  conductor  of  reli- 
gious mysteries  in  an  unintelligible  worship  of  an 
unknown  God.  For  in  its  possession  of  this  fact 
lies  its  power  to  take  from  men  the  two  burdens 
which  so  sorely  oppress  them,  — that  of  remorse  for 
a  wrongful  past,  that  of  unsatisfied  aspiration  in 
the  present  and  for  the  future. 

Empowered  by  this  fact,  the  Church  declares  to 
men  burdened  that  their  sins  are  forgiven  them. 
This  is  not  a  philosophical  statement  founded  on  a 
general  faith  that  God  is  good  and  therefore  will 
forgive  sins  ;  still  less  is  it  the  enunciation  of  a 
general  belief  that  he  is  merciful  and  therefore  will 
not  be  very  exacting  of  his  children,  but  will  let 
them  off  from  deserved  punishment  if  they  appeal 
to  him  with  adequate  signs  of  repentance,  in  pen- 
ances or  otherwise.  It  is  the  statement  of  the  his- 
toric fact  that  God  forgave  men  their  sins  before 
they  repented;  that  he  bears  no  ill-will  and  no 
wrath  against  them ;  that  he  only  desires  for  them 


68  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

that  they  shall  be  good  men  and  true ;  and  that,  to 
accomplish  this,  his  good-will  toward  them,  Jesus 
Christ  has  come  forth  from  his  Father  and  our 
Father  into  the  world.  Empowered  by  this  fact, 
the  Church  acts  as  the  official  and  authoritative 
promulgator  of  a  divine  forgiveness,  an  authoritative 
and  historically  reinforced  interpreter  of  the  divine 
disposition ;  empowered  by  this  fact,  the  Christian 
teacher  repeats  of  himself  what  Jesus  Christ  said  of 
himself  :  "  The  Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins."  ^  He  reiterates  Christ's  message  and 
with  the  same  authority :  "  Go  in  peace  and  sin  no 
more."  ^  He  re-declares,  not  as  a  theory,  but  as  an 
historically  established  fact :  "  Almighty  God,  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  .  .  .  hath  given 
power,  and  commandment,  to  his  ministers,  to  de- 
clare and  pronounce  to  his  people,  being  penitent, 
the  absolution  and  remission  of  their  sins.  He 
pardoneth  and  absolveth  all  those  who  truly  repent, 
and  unfeignedly  believe  his  holy  Gospel."  ^ 

While  the  Church  thus  with  authority  unloosens 
the  burden  of  the  past  from  those  on  whom  a  re- 
morseful memory  has  bound  that  past,  it  also  inspires 
with  a  hope  for  the  future  which  turns  the  anxious 
and  sometimes  despairing  aspirations  into  eager  and 
gladly  expectant  ones.  For  it  tells  the  story  of  a 
Man  who  in  himself  fulfilled  the  spiritual  desires 

1  Mark  ii,  10.  *  Luke  vii,  48-50 ;  John  viii,  11. 

*  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer :  The  Order  for  Daily  Morning 
and  for  Daily  Evening  Prayer. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        69 

which  are  in  aU  noble  men,  and  then,  departing, 
left  as  his  legacy  the  command,  which  is  also  a 
promise :  "  Follow  me."  It  answers  the  question, 
What  is  human  nature  ?  by  pointing  to  the  charac- 
ter of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  with  the  assurance.  What 
he  was  every  man  can  become.  It  answers  the  ques- 
tion. Is  life  worth  living  ?  by  pointing  to  that  life 
and  declaring  that,  as  he  laid  down  his  life  for  us, 
so  can  we  lay  down  our  lives  for  one  another.  It 
presents  to  humanity  not  an  ideal  merely,  but  a 
realized  ideal,  and  in  this  realization  of  the  highest 
ideal  of  character  gives  assurance  that  our  aspira- 
tions are  not  doomed  to  disappointment,  unless  we 
ourselves  so  doom  them.  That  they  are  intended 
by  our  Father  to  be  realized,  and  that  we  can  real- 
ize them,  is  historically  attested  by  the  life  of  him 
who  was  the  Son  of  man,  and  who,  experiencing 
our  battles,  has  pointed  out  to  us  the  possibility  of 
victory  and  the  way  to  achieve  it. 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  power  of  the  Church: 
not  the  excellence  of  its  ethical  instruction,  not  the 
wisdom  of  its  religious  philosophy,  not  the  aesthetic 
beauty  of  its  buildings  or  its  services,  and  certainly 
not  the  oratory  of  its  preachers :  but  this,  that  it 
is  charged  with  a  double  message  to  men  burdened 
by  a  sense  of  wrong-doing  in  the  past  and  tor- 
mented by  unfulfilled  aspirations  for  the  future ;  a 
message  to  the  first.  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  ;  ^ 
a  message  to  the  second,  You  can  do  aU  things 
1  Luke  V,  20. 


70  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

through  him  that  strengtheneth  you.^  Poorly  as 
the  Church  understands  its  mission,  poorly  as  it 
delivers  its  message,  it  nevertheless  has  this  as  its 
mission,  this  as  its  message.  And  when  it  fulfills 
the  one  and  delivers  the  other  with  the  power  that 
comes  from  the  conscious  possession  of  divine  au- 
thority, men  gather  to  its  services  to  receive  its 
gift.  This  is  not  the  only  message  of  Christianity : 
it  teaches  a  purer  ethics,  it  proffers  a  more  sacred 
consolation,  it  incites  to  a  more  joyous  and  inspir- 
ing worship  than  any  other  religion ;  but  no  other 
religion  has  attempted  to  proclaim  with  authority 
pardon  for  the  past,  or  to  give,  as  from  God  him- 
self, power  for  the  future. 

Of  the  principles  which  I  am  here  trying  to 
interpret,  two  illustrations  are  afforded  in  the  very 
recent  life  of  the  Church,  —  illustrations  which  are 
aU  the  more  significant  because  they  come  from 
quarters  so  dissimilar  theologically  and  ecclesiasti- 
cally that  to  many  persons  they  seem  to  have  no- 
thing in  common.  The  first  illustration  is  afforded 
by  the  High  Church  movement  in  England;  the 
second  by  the  life  and  work  of  Dwight  L.  Moody. 

It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  say  that  I  have 
no  ecclesiastical  or  theological  sympathy  with  the 
High  Church  movement.  I  do  not  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  organized  a  church,  or  appointed 
bishops,  or  gave  directly  or  by  remote  implication 
any  special  authority  to  the  bishops  thereafter  to 
1  Phil,  iv,  13. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        71 

be  appointed  in  the  Church,  or  conferred  special 
grace,  or  intended  that  special  grace  should  be 
conferred,  by  the  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  or  made  either  of  them  means  of 
conveying  supernatural  grace,  except  in  so  far  as 
they  became  the  expressions  of  a  mood  or  spirit  of 
mind  receptive  of  grace.  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
perpetuity  of  a  priesthood,  or  an  altar,  or  the  kind 
of  sacrificial  system  which  a  priesthood  and  an 
altar  seem  to  typify.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  for 
any  student  of  current  events  to  doubt  that  the 
High  Church  party  in  the  Anglican  Church  is 
reaUy  exerting  a  notable  spiritual  influence  in  Eng- 
land ;  that  it  is  attracting  in  many  cases  large  con- 
gregations to  before  sparsely  attended  churches; 
that  it  is  felt  as  a  power  in  many  hearts  and 
homes.  To  think  that  this  is  because  Protestant 
England  is  going  back  to  its  old-time  allegiance  to 
the  Pope  of  Rome,  or  because  a  generation  which 
has  departed  in  its  social  standards  from  the  severer 
simplicity  of  Puritan  England  wants  elaborate  ritu- 
alism in  its  churches,  or  because  it  is  easier  to  con- 
duct an  orderly  ritual  than  to  preach  a  tolerable 
sermon,  and  easier  to  go  through  the  first  without 
attention  than  to  give  attention  to  the  second,  is 
to  misread  the  signs  of  the  times,  and,  in  judging 
a  movement,  to  estimate  it  by  the  mere  incidents 
which  happen  to  accompany  it  and  not  by  the 
essential  spirit  which  characterizes  it.  The  dis- 
tinctive characteristic  of  the  High  Church  party 


72  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

is  its  sacerdotal  spirit ;  ^  its  exaltation  of  the  priest- 
hood and  the  altar ;  its  conversion  of  the  memorial 
supper  into  a  bloodless  sacrifice  of  the  mass ;  and 
its  use  of  priesthood,  altar,  and  mass  to  emphasize 
the  right  of  the  priest  to  declare  authoritatively 
the  absolution  and  remission  of  sins.  It  is  because 
the  High  Church  priesthood  assume  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins,  and  so  to  relieve  men  and  women 
of  the  first  of  the  two  burdens  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  that  it  has  its  power  over  the  hearts  of  its 
adherents.  It  is  for  this  reason,  also,  that  its  power 
is  mainly  seen  among  women.  Women's  morbid 
consciences  make  them  susceptible  to  painful  and 
sometimes  needless  regrets,  and  a  church  which 
offers  to  remove  this  burden  of  the  past  appeals  to 
them  more  than  it  does  to  men,  who  are  more 
inclined  to  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead,  and  ask 
for  a  religion  which  wiU  help  them  to  a  better 
future.  High  Church  theology  has  no  special  effi- 
cacy in  equipping  the  soul  for  the  future,  and  it 
has,  therefore,  no  special  attraction  for  virile  men. 
But  so  long  as  men  and  women  feel  the  burden  of 
the  irreparable  past,  so  long  they  wiU  come  to  that 
church,  and  only  to  that  church,  which  declares 
with  authority  that  the  past  is  forgiven ;  and  they 
wiU  not  always  be  critical  in  inquiring  whether  all 

^  It  has  also  been  characterized  by  notable  missionary  and  phi- 
lanthropic activity.  But  this  is  not  distinctive  of  the  High  Church 
party ;  it  belongs  to  the  age,  and  is  seen  in  every  denomination 
within  the  Church  and  in  some  organizations  wholly  nnecclesias- 
tioal. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        73 

the  grounds  on  which  that  authority  is  claimed  can 
stand  historical  investigation. 

At  the  other  extreme,  ecclesiastically,  are  the 
evangelists  of  our  time,  chief  among  them  all,  and 
type  of  them  all,  the  late  Dwight  L.  Moody.  If  I 
speak  of  him  peculiarly,  it  is  because  he  affords  so 
striking  an  illustration  of  the  principle  which  I  wish 
to  elucidate.  Mr.  Moody  belonged  to  a  denomination 
which  discards  all  notion  of  the  priesthood,  whose 
ministry  are  only  laymen  performing  a  special  func- 
tion in  a  church  without  orders.  In  this  church  he 
never  had  such  ordination  as  is  generally  required 
of  those  who  desire  to  exercise  ministerial  func- 
tions. His  services  were  accompanied  neither  by 
Baptism  nor  by  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  believed 
that  the  latter  was  a  memorial  service,  not  a  blood- 
less sacrifice ;  that  any  Christian,  whether  lay  or 
clerical,  was  equally  a  priest ;  to  him  the  Church 
was  a  meeting-house  and  the  altar  a  communion 
table  or  table  of  meeting ;  and  most  of  his  services 
were  held  in  unconsecrated  halls.  But  never  did 
a  High  Church  priest  of  the  Anglican  Church  be- 
lieve more  profoundly  that  to  him  had  been  given 
authority  to  promise  the  absolution  and  remission 
of  sins,  than  did  Mr.  Moody  believe  that  he  pos- 
sessed such  authority.  Rarely,  if  ever,  did  priest, 
Anglican  or  Catholic,  hear  more  vital  confessions 
or  pronounce  absolution  with  greater  assurance. 
The  High  Churchman  thinks  that  he  derives  such 
power  through  a  long  ecclesiastical  line ;  Mr.  Moody 


74  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

believed  that  he  derived  it  through  the  declarations 
of  the  Bible ;  but  both  in  the  last  analysis  obtained 
it  by  their  faith  in  "  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  .  .  . 
Who  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation  came  down 
from  heaven."  The  one  no  less  than  the  other 
spoke,  or  claimed  to  speak,  by  authority ;  both  de- 
rived their  authority  from  the  same  great  historic 
fact ;  and  the  attractive  power  which  drew  unnum- 
bered thousands  to  the  preaching  of  Mr.  Moody 
was  in  its  essence  the  same  as  that  which  draws 
unnumbered  thousands  to  the  Altar  and  the  Eucha- 
rist. 

This  is  the  function  of  the  Christian  ministry : 
not  to  administer  charity,  but  to  inspire  in  the  com- 
munity the  spirit  of  charity ;  not  to  counsel  wise 
political  policies,  but  to  inspire  in  government  the 
spirit  of  justice ;  not  to  instruct  the  intellect,  but 
to  fashion  the  affections  and  the  wiU ;  and  this  it 
is  to  do  by  imparting  to  men  peace  from  the  burden 
of  the  past  and  power  for  the  duties  of  the  present 
and  the  future.  If  the  Christian  ministry  is  to  do 
this  work  it  must  be  itself  inspired  by  such  a  per- 
ception of  the  Infinite  in  the  life,  character,  and 
post-resurrection  work  of  Jesus  Christ  as  is  able  to 
promote  in  men  Christlikeness  of  character.  If  this 
perception  is  wanting  in  the  ministry,  the  ministry 
will  be  without  power.  If  we  of  the  so-caUed  lib- 
eral faith  hope  to  retain  in  these  more  liberal  days 
the  attractive  power  of  the  Church,  we  can  do  it 
only  by  holding  fast  to  the  great  historic  facts  of 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  MINISTRY        75 

the  birth,  life,  passion,  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
essentially  as  they  are  narrated  in  the  Four  Gospels, 
and  to  the  great  spiritual  fact  that  in  the  God  whom 
Christ  has  revealed  to  us  there  is  abundant  for- 
giveness for  all  the  past,  and  abundant  life  for  all 
the  future.  And  this  we  must  declare,  not  as  a  the- 
ological opinion,  to  be  defended  by  philosophical 
arguments  as  a  rational  hypothesis,  but  as  an  as- 
sured fact,  historically  certified  by  the  life  and  death 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  confirmed  out  of  the  mouth  of 
many  witnesses  by  the  experience  of  Christ's  disci- 
ples and  followers  in  all  churches  and  in  every  age. 
If  we  fail  to  do  this,  men  will  desert  our  ministry 
for  Eomanism,  Anglicanism,  and  Evangelism,  or,  in 
despair  of  spiritual  life  in  any  quarter,  will  desert 
aU  that  ministers  to  the  higher  life,  and  live  a 
whoUy  material  life,  alternating  between  restless, 
unsatisfied  desire  and  stolid  seK-content.  And  the 
fault  and  the  folly  will  be  ours  more  even  than 
theirs. 

If  the  Church  is  to  give  this  message  of  peace 
and  power  it  must  give  it  with  authority.  Whence 
does  it  derive  this  authority  ?  and  how  is  this  author- 
ity attested  ? 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

The  writers  of  the  Bible  speak  witli  authority. 
When  Moses  came  down  from  Mount  Sinai,  it  was 
not  to  say  to  the  Children  of  Israel  on  the  plain,  I 
advise  you  not  to  steal,  not  to  kiU,  not  to  commit 
adultery ;  you  will  be  a  great  deal  happier  if  you 
do  not  do  these  things ;  the  experience  of  the  world 
indicates  that  this  is  disadvantageous.  He  says, 
Thou  shalt  not  steal,  thou  shalt  not  kiU,  thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery.  He  speaks  with  authority. 
When  Isaiah  speaks  to  the  Children  of  Israel,  in  a 
later  age,  he  does  not  say,  I  think  you  are  mistaken 
in  putting  such  stress  on  forms  and  ceremonies ;  it 
is  far  more  important  to  keep  the  heart  clean  than 
it  is  to  offer  sacrifices ;  the  experience  of  the  world 
indicates  this ;  and  there  are  other  good  reasons  for 
thinking  so.  He  says,  in  the  name  of  God,  and 
speaking  as  for  him:  "  To  what  purpose  is  the  multi- 
tude of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  .  .  .  Wash  you, 
make  you  clean ;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings 
from  before  mine  eyes ;  cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do 
well."  ^  These  prophets  spoke  in  the  name  of  God. 
Their  customary  phrase  was,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 
1  Isaiah  i.  11,  16, 17. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       77 

They  spoke  with  authority.  When  Christ  comes 
and  a  great  audience  gathers  to  hear  that  ordination 
sermon  which  we  call  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
he  does  not  argue,  he  simply  affirms ;  and  when  he 
has  finished,  the  ^people  say.  This  man  speaks  with 
authority,  and  not  as  the  Scribes.  He  promises  to 
his  apostles  similar  authority.  He  says,  "  Ye  shall 
receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come 
upon  you."  When  Paul  writes  his  Epistles,  it  is 
stiU  with  power.  The  Gospel,  he  says,  is  "the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation."  ^  From  the  Exodus 
to  the  close  of  the  canon  the  Bible  speaks  with  au- 
thority. 

Where  did  these  men  get  their  authority? 
What  was  the  secret  of  it  ?   What  was  its  nature  ? 

They  certainly  did  not  get  it  from  the  Bible, 
because  the  Bible  is  composed  of  what  they  said ; 
it  is  the  product  of  their  utterances.  The  Bible 
gets  its  authority  from  the  prophets  and  the  apos- 
tles ;  the  prophets  and  the  apostles  do  not  get  their 
authority  from  the  Bible. 

They  did  not  get  it  from  the  Church.  Moses 
spoke  before  any  church  was  organized.  The  later 
prophets  stood  in  no  relation  to  the  Church ;  they 
did  not  belong  to  the  hierarchy.  The  priests  were 
in  a  succession,  but  the  prophets  were  not.  In  the 
later  times,  Christ  and  the  apostles  did  not  get 
their  authority  from  the  Church.    Christ  did  not ; 

1  Matt,  vii,  29 ;  Acts  i,  4,  5,  8  (cf .  Luke  xxiv,  49) ;  Rom.  i,  16 
(cf.  1  Cop.  i,  18). 


78  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  Church  excommunicated  him ;  the  major  part 
of  his  life  the  Church  was  fighting  him.  Paul  did 
not;  the  Christian  Church  was  divided  on  the 
question  whether  he  was  an  apostle  or  not,  and  the 
Jewish  Church  turned  him  out  of  the  synagogue. 

The  sacred  writers  did  not  get  their  authority 
from  reason.  Their  affirmations  were  not  deduc- 
tions ;  their  revealings  were  not  conclusions  of  ar- 
guments. The  Hebrews  were  not  philosophers. 
They  did  not  argue.  Jesus  Christ  rarely  argued. 
His  most  emphatic  declarations  were  not  syllogistic 
in  form  and  cannot  be  put  in  syllogistic  form.  His 
great  sermons  —  the  Sermon  at  Nazareth,  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Sermon  on  the  Bread 
of  Life  —  are  not  logical.  Paul  argued  ;  but  only 
for  the  purpose  of  making  the  people  accept  the 
conclusions  which  he  had  reached  by  a  different 
process.  Sometimes  his  arguments  are  formal,  not 
real ;  sometimes  the  processes  are  illogical ;  some- 
times the  premises  would  be  doubted  or  denied  by 
most  modern  readers  ;  generally  his  most  authori- 
tative declarations  are  not  preceded  by  any  argu- 
ments, as :  "  We  know  that  the  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until 
now  ;  "  or  "  We  know  that  aU  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  God."  ^  Where  does  he 
get  his  authority  for  such  a  statement  ?  How  did 
he  know  ?    How  can  he  know  ? 

These  writers  did  not  get  their  authority  from 

1  Rom.  viii,  22,  28. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY      79 

miracles.  Granting  that  all  the  so-caUed  miracles 
in  the  Bible  were  performed  exactly  as  narrated, 
stiU  it  remains  true  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
Bible  teachers  performed  no  miracles.  Most  of  the 
prophets  performed  none.  Of  those  Biblical  teach- 
ers who  did  perform  miracles,  the  great  majority 
made  their  utterances  independent  of  any  miracles. 

They  did  not  get  their  authority  from  the  ful- 
fillment of  prophecy,  for  the  prophecy  was  not  ful- 
filled for  years,  in  some  cases  not  for  centuries, 
after  the  prediction.  Events  occurring  from  two  to 
four  centuries  after  the  death  of  the  prophet  could 
not  have  given  the  prophet  his  authority  during  his 
lifetime.  Their  authority  did  not  come  from  pro- 
phecy, nor  from  miracles,  nor  from  argument,  nor 
from  the  Church,  nor  from  the  Bible ;  and  yet  they 
spoke  with  authority. 

The  character  of  this  authority  has  been  de- 
scribed by  Canon  Liddon  in  an  eloquent  passage : 

Wherein  did  this  power  which  the  Apostles  were  to 
receive  consist?  Creating  political  ascendancy,  yet  ut- 
terly distinct  from  it ;  fertilizing  intellectual  power,  yet 
differing  in  its  essence  from  the  activity  of  mere  vigorous 
unsanctified  intellect ;  working  miracles,  (it  may  be)  gifted 
to  work  physical  wonders,  yet  certainly  in  itself  more  per- 
suasive than  the  miracle  it  was  empowered  to  produce ; 
intimately  allied  with,  and  the  natural  accompaniment  of 
distinct  ministerial  faculties,  yet  not  necessarily  so,  — 
what  is  this  higher,  this  highest  power,  this  gift  of  gifts, 
this  transforming  influence,  which  was  to  countersign  as 
if  from  heaven  what  had  previously  been  given  by  the 


80  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Incarnate  Lord  on  earth,  and  was  to  form  out  of  un- 
lettered and  irresolute  peasants  the  evangelists  of  the 
world  ?  My  brethren,  it  was  spiritual,  it  was  personal, 
it  was  niioral  power.  And  spiritual  power  may  be  felt 
rather  than  described  or  analyzed.  It  resides  in  or  it 
permeates  a  man's  whole  circle  of  activities ;  it  cannot 
be  localized,  it  cannot  be  identified  exclusively  with  one 
of  them.  It  is  felt  in  solemn  statements  of  doctrine,  and 
also  in  the  informal  utterances  of  casual  intercourse  ;  it 
is  felt  in  actions  no  less  than  in  language,  in  trivial  acts 
no  less  than  in  heroic  resignation ;  it  is  traced  perchance 
in  the  very  expression  of  the  countenance,  yet  the  coun- 
tenance is  too  coarse  an  organ  to  do  it  justice ;  it  just 
asserts  its  presence,  but  its  presence  is  too  volatile,  too 
immaterial,  to  admit  of  being  seized,  and  measured,  and 
brought  by  art  or  by  language  fairly  within  the  compass 
of  our  comprehension.  It  is  an  unearthly  beauty,  whose 
native  home  is  in  a  higher  world,  yet  which  tarries 
among  men  from  age  to  age,  since  the  time  when  the 
Son  of  God  left  us  His  example  and  gave  us  His  Spirit. 
It  is  nothing  else  than  His  spiritual  presence,  mantling 
upon  His  servants  ;  they  live  in  Him  ;  they  lose  in  Him 
something  of  their  proper  personality ;  yet  they  are  ab- 
sorbed into,  they  are  transfigured  by,  a  Life  altogether 
higher  than  their  own  :  His  voice  blends  with  theirs.  His 
£ye  seems  to  lighten  theirs  with  its  sweetness  and  its 
penetration ;  His  hand  gives  gentleness  and  decision  to 
their  acts ;  His  Heart  communicates  a  ray  of  its  Divine 
charity  to  their  life  of  narrow  and  more  stagnant  affec- 
tion ;  His  Soul  commingles  with  theirs,  and  their  life 
of  thought,  and  feeling,  and  resolve  is  irradiated  and 
braced  by  His.^ 

1  H.  P.  Liddon :  Clerical  Life  and  Work,  pp.  159-161. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY      81 

Eloquent  as  this  description  is,  it  yet  leaves  some- 
thing to  be  desired.  Can  we  by  analysis  approxi- 
mate an  understanding  of  the  secret  of  this  power  ? 
Can  we  state  it  in  psychological  terms  ?  Two  writ- 
ers have  done  this :  one  an  ancient,  the  other  a 
modem  author;  one  theological,  the  other  anti- 
theological  ;  the  one  called  himseH  an  Apostle,  the 
other  called  himself  an  Agnostic. 

The  Apostle  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans thus  describes  this  authority : 

And  my  speech  and  my  preaching  was  not  with  en- 
ticing words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of 
the  spirit  and  of  power. 

His  power  was  a  demonstration  of  the  spirit. 
What  does  that  mean  ?  A  little  later  in  this  Epistle 
he  teUs  us  what  it  means : 

But  as  it  is  written,  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him.  But 
God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit :  for  the 
spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God. 
For  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save  the 
spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  even  so  the  things  of 
God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  spirit  of  God.^  Now  we 
have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  spirit 
which  is  of  God ;  that  we  might  know  the  things  that 
are  freely  given  to  us  of  God.  Which  things  also  we 
speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth, 
but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth ;  comparing  spiritual 
things  with  spiritual.  But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not 
^  That  is,  as  in  the  next  sentence,  "  the  spirit  which  is  of  Qod." 


82  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God :  for  they  are  foolishness 
unto  him  :  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are 
spiritually  discerned.  But  he  that  is  spiritual  judgeth 
all  things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of  no  man.^ 

Every  man  has  a  body,  a  physical  organism.  He 
has  a  social  and  intellectual  character  that  is  some- 
what aMn  to  that  of  the  animal.  And  he  also 
possesses  a  spiritual  nature,  —  a  faith,  a  hope,  a 
love,  —  that  transcends  the  animal  nature,  the  social 
nature,  the  physical  nature.  This  spiritual  nature 
in  man  searches  the  deep  things  of  God.  It  is  all 
the  time  groping;  it  is  all  the  time  looking  for 
something  the  eye  does  not  see  and  even  the  im- 
agination has  not  conceived.  It  feels,  it  realizes,  it 
knows,  because  it  is  spirit ;  knows  something  that 
transcends  the  senses,  something  that  argument  can- 
not bring,  something  that  logic  cannot  demonstrate. 
Every  man  has  this  spirit  in  him.  If  we  so  speak 
that  we  evoke  that  spiritual  response  in  the  men 
who  listen  to  us,  our  words  are  with  authority,  be- 
cause they  themselves  see  also  that  it  is  true.  "We 
are  ourselves  revelators.  We  draw  aside  the  veil 
that  hangs  over  men's  souls,  and  then  they  see  and 
know :  not  because  the  Church  has  told  them,  not 
because  the  Bible  has  told  them,  not  because  mira- 
cles have  attested  it,  not  because  fulfilled  prophecy 
has  proved  it,  not  because  reason  has  reached  it, 
but  because  they  see  it. 

Such  is  Paul's  explanation  of  the  secret  of  his 
1  lCor.ii,4,9-15. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       83 

power.  His  preaching  was  powerful  because  it  was 
in  "  demonstration  of  the  spirit ; "  not  "  proof  by 
syllogistic  deduction  of  a  conclusion  from  known 
premises,"  ^  but  proof  by  the  revelation  to  the 
spirit  in  man  '^hich  is  able  to  perceive  spiritual 
truth  upon  the  bare  presentation  of  it. 

In  very  different  language,  but  to  the  same  effect, 
is  Professor  Huxley's  explanation  of  the  source  of 
our  knowledge  of  ethical  truth,  and  so  the  secret 
of  power  in  the  ethical  teacher : 

Some  there  are  who  cannot  feel  the  difference  be- 
tween the  "  Sonata  Appassionata  "  and  "  Cherry  Ripe  " 
or  between  a  grave-stone-cutter's  art  and  the  Apollo 
Belvedere ;  but  the  canons  of  art  are  none  the  less  ac- 
knowledged. "While  some  there  may  be,  who,  devoid  of 
sympathy,  are  incapable  of  a  sense  of  duty ;  but  neither 
does  their  existence  affect  the  foundations  of  morality. 
Such  pathological  deviations  from  true  manhood  are 
merely  the  halt,  the  lame,  and  the  blind  of  the  world  of 
consciousness ;  and  the  anatomist  of  the  mind  leaves  them 
aside,  as  the  anatomist  of  the  body  would  ignore  abnor- 
mal specimens.  And  as  there  are  Pascals  and  Mozarts, 
Newtons  and  Raffaeles,  in  whom  the  innate  faculty  for 
science  or  art  seems  to  need  but  a  touch  to  spring  into 
full  vigor,  and  through  whom  the  human  race  obtains 
new  possibilities  of  knowledge  and  new  conceptions  of 
beauty:  so  there  have  been  men  of  moral  genius,  to 
whom  we  owe  ideals  of  duty  and  visions  of  moral  perfec- 
tion, which  ordinary  mankind  could  never  have  attained : 
though,  happily  for  them,  they  can  feel  the  beauty  of  a 

*  Aristotle :  quoted  in  Liddell  &  Scott's  Greek-Englisb  Lexi- 
con under  &p<J5€t|tf. 


84  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

vision  which  lay  beyond  the  reach  of  their  dull  ima^na- 
tions,  and  count  life  well  spent  in  shaping  some  faint 
image  of  it  in  the  actual  world.* 

An  analysis  of  the  closing  sentence  of  this  para- 
graph shows  two  statements  in  it,  each  of  which 
throws  some  light  on  the  authority  of  the  Biblical 
writers.  The  first  statement  is  that  the  men  of 
moral  genius  have  possessed  not  merely  ideals  of 
duty,  but  also  visions  of  perfection ;  that  is,  they 
have  not  merely  imagined  an  ideal  which  we  might 
seek  to  realize,  but  they  have  seen  an  existing 
standard  of  perfection  to  which  we  may  endeavor 
to  conform  our  character.  The  second  statement  is 
that  to  these  ideals  of  duty  and  visions  of  perfec- 
tion ordinary  mankind  could  never  have  attained, 
except  through  the  disclosure  of  them  by  the  men 
of  moral  genius ;  in  other  words,  we  need  not  wait 
for  an  original  ideal  or  vision,  but  may  well  accept 
both  at  second  hand  from  another,  and  count  that 
life  well  spent  which  shapes  some  image  of  it  in 
the  actual  world. 

This  is  the  authority  which  underlies  all  effective 
ethical  teaching.  Goodness  is  a  kind  of  beauty; 
and  the  prophet  is  one  who  sees  this  beauty  him- 
self and  is  able  to  make  others  see  it.  This  is  the 
authority  which  underlies  the  Ten  Commandments 
and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  When  Moses  says 
to  Israel,  Thou  shalt  not  kiU,  thou  shalt  not  steal, 
thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,  their  own  con- 
1  T.  H.  Huxley :  Hume,  pp.  239,  240. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       85 

sciences  respond,  This  is  right.  When  Jesus 
Christ  says,  Do  not  indulge  in  lustful  thoughts,  love 
your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  despitefully 
use  you,  he  speaks  with  authority,  because  there  is 
in  men  the  capacity  to  see  the  truth  and  beauty  of 
these  utterances.  There  is  no  need  of  argument. 
The  congregation  say  to  themselves.  That  is  true. 
The  authority  lies  in  the  preacher,  because  it  lies 
in  the  heart  of  the  hearer.  It  lies  in  the  preacher, 
because  he  is  able  to  evoke  in  the  heart  of  the 
hearer  the  same  voice  that  has  spoken  within  his 
own  heart. 

But  the  soul  of  man  has  need  of  something  more 
than  ethical  principles  to  guide  his  conduct.  Man 
needs  God,  as  the  body  needs  water.  Man  can  see 
and  know  God  as  one  with  whom  he  can  have  spir- 
itual communion,  as  he  can  know  the  spirit  of  a 
friend.  The  preacher  speaks  of  God  with  authority 
when  he  realizes  this  need  of  man,  and  when  he  is 
able  so  to  present  God  that  his  presentation  satis- 
fies that  need.  That  there  is  such  a  need,  sometimes 
underlying  consciousness,  sometimes  acutely  felt  in 
consciousness,  sometimes  openly  expressed  in  sor- 
rowful words,  is  abundantly  testified  to  by  literature. 
One  of  the  most  ancient  expressions  of  the  soul's 
need  for  God  is  found  in  that  splendid  "  epic  of  the 
inner  life,"  the  Book  of  Job  : 

Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him, 
That  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat ! 
I  would  order  my  cause  before  him, 
And  fill  my  mouth  with  arguments. 


86  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

I  would  know  the  words  which  he  would  answer  me, 

And  understand  what  he  would  say  unto  me. 

Would  he  contend  with  me  in  the  greatness  of  his  power  ? 

Nay ;  but  he  would  give  heed  unto  me. 

There  the  upright  might  reason  with  him  ; 

So  should  I  be  delivered  for  ever  from  my  judge. 

Behold,  I  go  forward,  but  he  is  not  there  ; 

And  backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive  him  ; 

On  the  left  hand,  where  he  doth  work,  but  I  cannot  behold  him : 

He  hideth  himself  on  the  right  hand,  that  I  cannot  see  him.^ 

Not  less  pathetic  is  the  testimony  of  a  modern 
agnostic,  Professor  W.  K.  Clifford,  to  the  same 
truth: 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  theistic  belief  is  a  comfort 
and  a  solace  to  those  who  hold  it,  and  that  the  loss  of  it 
is  a  very  painful  loss.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  at  least,  by 
many  of  us  in  this  generation,  who  either  profess  it  now, 
or  received  it  in  our  childhood  and  have  parted  from  it 
since  with  such  surging  trouble  as  only  cradle-faiths  can 
cause.  We  have  seen  the  spring  sun  shine  out  of  an 
empty  heaven,  to  light  up  a  soulless  earth ;  we  have  felt 
with  utter  loneliness  that  the  Great  Companion  is  dead. 
Our  children,  it  may  be  hoped,  will  know  that  sorrow 
only  by  the  reflex  light  of  a  wondering  compassion.^ 

Professor  Clifford  is  mistaken.  As  long  as  man 
is  man  and  God  is  God,  so  long  wiU  man  not  be  con- 
tent to  see  "  the  spring  sun  shine  out  of  an  empty 
heaven,  to  light  up  a  souUess  earth ; "  so  long  he 
will  cry  out,  sometimes  in  articulate  outcries,  some- 
times in  inarticulate  and  half-conscious  moanings, 
like  a  child  in  his  sleep  reaching  for  his  mother, 

1  Job  xxiii,  3-9. 

2  W.  K.  Clifford :  Lectures  and  Essays,  p.  389. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       87 

Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him,  that  I 
might  come  even  to  his  seat !  This  is  the  reason 
men  aUow  one  day  in  the  week  the  wheels  of  the 
factory  to  stop,  the  store  to  be  closed,  the  plough 
to  stand  unused  in  the  furrow,  even  the  courts  to 
halt  in  the  administration  of  justice,  that  those  who 
are  busy  for  six  days  accumulating  material  wealth, 
or  serving  their  feUow  men  on  the  earthly  and 
material  side,  may  take  one  day  for  seeking  a 
knowledge  of  him  to  whom  they  are  always  coming, 
and  yet  who  must  ever  remain  in  some  sense  the 
Unknown.  Surely  it  is  significant  that  Herbert 
Spencer,  who  is  preeminently  known  as  the  apostle 
of  agnosticism,  —  the  doctrine  that  the  Infinite 
and  the  Eternal  is  and  ever  must  be  the  Unknown, 

—  surely  it  is  significant  that  his  last  word  to  the 
world,  in  the  closing  paragraphs  of  his  autobiogra- 
phy, is  a  testimony  born  of  his  own  experience  that 
the  longing  to  know  the  Unknown  is  irrepressible : 

Behind  these  mysteries  lies  the  all-embracing  mystery 

—  whence  this  universal  transformation  which  has  gone  on 
unceasingly  throughout  a  past  eternity  and  will  go  on  un- 
ceasingly throughout  a  future  eternity  ?  And  along  with 
this  arises  the  paralyzing  thought  —  what  if,  of  all  that 
is  thus  incomprehensible  to  us,  there  exists  no  compre- 
hension anywhere  ?  No  wonder  that  men  take  refuge  in 
authoritative  dogma !  .  .  .  Thus  religious  creeds,  which 
in  one  way  or  other  occupy  the  sphere  that  rational  in- 
terpretation seeks  to  occupy  and  fails,  and  fails  the  more 
the  more  it  seeks,  I  have  come  to  regard  with  a  sym- 
pathy based  on  community  of  need :  feeling  that  dissent 


88  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

from  them  results  from  inability  to  accept  the  solutions 
offered,  joined  with  the  wish  that  solutions  could  be 
found.^ 

No  philosophical  solution  ever  did,  ever  will,  or 
ever  can  satisfy  this  need.  The  need  is  not  intel- 
lectual, but  spiritual.  It  is  not  need  of  a  solution, 
it  is  need  of  a  God.  It  is  not  the  desire  of  a  phi- 
losopher to  solve  an  enigma,  it  is  the  desire  of  a 
child  to  find  his  Father.  If  the  preacher  can  bring 
to  his  congregation  nothing  better  than  a  solution 
of  the  enigma,  nothing  better,  that  is,  than  a  the- 
ology, the  people  wiU  go  away  unsatisfied.  If  he 
has  in  himseK  some  experience  of  God,  however 
superficial,  fragmentary,  and  imperfect,  and  if  he 
has  the  power  to  evoke  in  his  congregation  an  ex- 
perience of  God,  though  it  be  as  superficial,  as  frag- 
mentary, and  as  imperfect  as  his  own,  they  will  come 
again.  It  is  neither  the  "authoritative  dogma" 
nor  the  "  rational  interpretation  "  which  the  souls 
of  men  hunger  for ;  it  is  the  Living  Person ;  and 
it  is  for  the  minister  to  answer  this  need  by 
evoking  in  the  soid  a  consciousness  of  the  Living 
Person. 

Helen  Keller,  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  shut  out  from 
the  world  of  sense,  from  the  world  of  beauty,  and 
to  a  large  extent  from  the  world  of  men,  seeks  to 
know  God,  and  writes  to  PhiUips  Brooks,  "  I  wish 
you  would  tell  me  something  about  God ;  "  and  thus 
he  answers  her : 

1  Herbert  Spencer :  An  Autobiography,  ii,  548,  549. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       89 

Let  me  tell  you  how  it  seems  to  me  that  we  come  to 
know  about  our  heavenly  Father.  It  is  from  the  power 
of  love  in  our  own  hearts.  Love  is  at  the  source  of  every- 
thing. Whatever  has  not  the  power  of  loving  must  have 
a  very  dreary  life  indeed.  .  .  .  And  so  God  who  is  the 
greatest  and  happiest  of  all  beings  is  the  most  loving  too. 
All  the  love  that  is  in  our  hearts  comes  from  him,  as  aU 
the  light  which  is  in  the  flower  comes  from  the  sun.  And 
the  more  we  love,  the  more  near  we  are  to  God  and  his 
love.* 

He  proves  nothing,  cites  no  authority  of  Church 
or  Scripture;  simply  bids  her  look  into  her  own 
heart,  and  in  its  testimony  find  the  revelation  for 
which  she  longs. 

Charles  Dickens  was  not  a  theologian ;  he  was  not 
pietistic ;  he  was  a  dramatist ;  he  saw  clearly,  and  de- 
scribed effectively,  the  common  experiences  of  com- 
mon men.  He  dealt  chiefly  with  plain,  unlettered, 
uncultivated  people.  In  "  Bleak  House  "  he  por- 
trays Allan  Woodcourt  standing  by  the  form  of 
poor  Jo,  a  heathen  who  had  been  living  in  the  heart 
of  London,  —  and  there  is  no  pagan  land  more  pagan 
than  some  parts  of  our  great  cities,  —  as  the  breath 
is  departing  from  the  body  of  the  poor  boy,  who  has 
never  known  anything  of  religion  or  of  God  or  of 
Christ.    Allan  says : 

"  Jo,  my  poor  fellow  !  " 

"  I   hear  you,  sir,  in  the  dark ;    but  I  'm  a-gropin', 
argropin',  —  let  me  catch  hold  of  your  hand." 
"  Jo,  can  you  say  what  I  say  ?  " 

1  Helen  Keller :  The  Story  of  My  Life,  p.  187. 


90  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

"  I  *11  say  any  think  as  you  say,  sir ;  for  I  knows  it 's 
good." 

"  Our  Father." 

"  Our  father  !  —  yes,  that 's  wery  good,  sir." 

**  Which  art  in  heaven." 

"  Art  in  heaven.    Is  the  light  a-comin',  sir  ?  " 

"  It  is  close  at  hand.   Hallowed  be  thy  name." 

"  Hallowed  be  —  thy  "  — 

The  light  is  come  upon  the  dark  benighted  way. 
Dead!! 

That  is  preaching.  If  the  minister  can  say  "  Our 
Father  "  so  that  the  men  and  women  in  his  congre- 
gation will  also  say  "Our  Father,  yes!  that  is  very 
good,"  this  is  enough.  He  will  not  need  to  go  to 
bishops  or  archbishops  for  authority;  he  will  not 
need  to  quote  texts  for  authority ;  the  authority  is 
in  the  hearts  that  are  before  him.  If  the  minister 
cannot  evoke  this  response  from  the  hearts  of  his 
congregation,  no  authority  of  gowns  and  crosses,  of 
ordinations  and  laying  on  of  hands,  of  books  and 
writers,  ancient  or  modern,  inspired  or  uninspired, 
will  suffice  to  make  him  a  preacher.  The  authority 
of  the  preacher  lies  in  his  power  to  make  other  men 
see  the  God  whom  he  has  himself  first  seen. 

And  if  he  is  able  to  make  them  see  the  God  whom 
he  has  himself  first  seen,  a  God  whose  forgiving  love 
and  inspiring  power  are  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ 
and  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  he  will,  in  im- 
parting to  them  this  vision,  impart  also  that  for- 
giveness for  the  past  and  that  inspiration  for  the 

^  Charles  Dickens  :  Bleak  House,  chap,  xlvii. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       91 

future,  that  peace  and  that  power,  which  are  the 
deepest  needs  of  the  human  soul,  and  are  at  times 
its  most  intense  desire.  If  he  can  first  awaken  that 
dormant  desire  and  make  it  dominant,  and  then  if 
he  can  satisfy  it,,by  leading  the  soul  to  him  who 
alone  can  satisfy  it,  no  other  evidence  of  his  author- 
ity need  be  offered,  for  no  other  will  be  demanded. 
If  he  cannot  do  this,  ecclesiastical  indorsements  will 
be  cited  by  him  in  vain ;  for  none  such  wiU  be  suf- 
ficient. 

Is  there,  then,  no  authority  in  the  Church,  and 
none  in  the  Bible?  Are  there  no  standards  of 
truth  and  duty?  Is  that  for  each  man  the  truth 
which  he  thinks  to  be  true,  and  that  for  each  man 
right  which  he  thinks  to  be  righteousness?  Are 
truth  and  duty  subjective  terms  merely,  —  truth 
only  the  opinion  of  the  individual,  duty  only  the 
impulse  of  the  individual  ?  No ;  this  would  be  an 
intolerable  conclusion :  truth  and  duty  are  realities ; 
opinions  and  impulses  are  only  the  method  by  which 
those  realities  are  interpreted  to  us.  There  is  an 
authority  apart  from  the  judgment  and  conscience 
of  the  individual  man,  —  a  real  authority ;  and  it  is 
to  be  found  both  in  the  Church  and  in  the  Bible. 
And  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  modem 
religious  teacher  should  understand  the  nature  and 
source  of  this  authority.  The  authority  both  of  the 
organization  and  of  the  Book  lies  in  the  fact  that 
both  appeal  to  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  give 
expression  to  the  half-conscious  spiritual   life  of 


02  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

man,  and  by  their  message  respond  to  the  imper- 
fectly realized  spiritual  wants  of  man.  When  the 
authority  of  either  the  Church  or  the  Bible  is  re- 
garded as  though  it  were  something  apart  from  the 
authority  of  God,  speaking  to  and  in  the  spirit  of 
man,  when  the  attempt  is  made  by  the  authority  of 
either  the  Church  or  the  Bible  to  repress  the  ques- 
tioning of  the  human  spirit,  to  impair  its  life,  and 
to  impose  obligations  upon  it  against  which  its  con- 
science and  its  judgment  rebel,  there  can  be  but 
one  result,  —  a  weakening  of  aU  religious  authority, 
if  not  an  open  rebellion  against  it.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  religious  teacher  must  understand  clearly 
the  two  antagonistic  conceptions  respecting  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  and  the  two  antagonistic 
conceptions  of  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  and  must 
choose  between  them. 

The  Eoman  Catholic  theologians  define  with 
great  clearness,  and  accept  with  entire  consistency, 
what  may  be  called  the  ecclesiastical  conception  of 
Church  authority.  This  conception  is  thus  defined 
in  the  "  Faith  of  Catholics :  " 

The  way  or  means  by  which  to  arrive  at  the  know- 
ledge of  divine  truths  is  attention  and  submission  to  the 
voice  of  the  Pastors  of  the  Church  :  a  Church  estabHshed 
by  Christ  for  the  instruction  of  all ;  spread  for  that  end 
through  all  nations ;  visibly  continued  in  the  succession  of 
Pastors  and  people  through  all  ages.  Whence  the  marks 
of  this  Church  are,  Unity,  Visibility,  Indefectibility,  Suc- 
cession from  the  Apostles,  Universality,  and  Sanctity.^ 
1  The  Faith  of  Catholics,  Prop.  VI,  i,  9. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       93 

All  churches  which  regard  a  visible,  historical  or- 
ganization as  the  basis  and  source  of  authority  in 
religion,  whether  Greek,  Eoman,  or  Anglican, 
belong  in  the  same  category.  For  convenience' 
sake,  this  theory  may  be  termed  the  Catholic 
theory.  It  is  accepted  by  all  loyal  communicants 
in  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  communions, 
and  by  a  considerable  number  of  the  clergy  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

The  other  conception  of  the  authority  of  the 
Church  regards  the  Church  as  the  whole  body  of 
those  in  aU  ages  in  whom  has  been  developed  the 
power  of  so  perceiving  the  Infinite  as  that  their 
moral  nature  is  changed  by  the  perception;  who 
are  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  faith,  hope,  and  love ; 
who  possess  in  their  own  souls  that  life  of  God  in 
the  soul  of  man  which  constitutes  the  essence  of 
religion.  The  Church  thus  defined  is  the  Repub- 
lic of  God ;  it  is  the  temple  in  which  he  dwells ; 
it  is  the  body  of  Christ,  the  historic  continuation 
of  the  Incarnation.  Its  unity  is  not  in  creed,  or 
ritual,  or  sacrament,  or  orders  and  organization, 
but  in  spiritual  life.  The  authority  of  the  Church 
as  interpreted  by  this  conception  is  the  authority 
derived  from  the  testimony  of  the  concurring  ex- 
perience of  unnumbered  thousands.  It  is  the  author- 
ity of  the  individual  consciousness,  multiplied  by 
innumerable  witnesses.  It  furnishes  a  standard  of 
faith,  exactly  as  the  testimony  of  many  witnesses 
furnishes  a  standard  of  observation.    If  a  thousand 


d4  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

men  have  seen  the  same  phenomenon,  and  a  hun- 
dred who  were  in  the  same  place  at  the  same  time 
did  not  observe  it,  we  accept  the  affirmative  testi- 
mony of  the  thousand  and  disregard  the  negative 
testimony  of  the  hundred.  We  accept  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Church  of  God,  bearing  witness  to  its 
experience  of  Divine  life  in  the  souls  of  men,  and 
do  not  count  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  no 
such  experience.  Such  negative  experience  is  of  no 
weight  whatever  in  counteracting  this  affirmative 
testimony  to  a  real  life.  And  we  use  without  hesi- 
tation that  which  is  concurrent  in  the  consciousness 
of  many  witnesses  to  correct  that  which  is  idiosyn- 
cratic in  the  experience  of  a  single  individual. 
This  conception  of  the  basis  of  authority  is  dis- 
avowed by  practically  aU  Greek  and  Roman  Cath- 
olic theologians ;  unfortunately,  it  has  been  but 
dimly  held  and  inconsistently  inculcated  by  most 
Protestant  theologians.  But  as  the  one  theory  may 
be  entitled  Catholic,  so  the  other  may  be  entitled 
Protestant.  It  is  impossible  to  combine  the  two. 
"  In  vain,"  says  Auguste  Sabatier,  "  wiU  eminent 
men  in  both  camps,  with  the  most  generous  and 
conciliatory  intentions,  arise  and  endeavor  to  find 
some  middle  ground,  and  effect  a  pacific  reunion  of 
the  two  halves  of  Christendom.  AU  compromises, 
aU  diplomatic  negotiations,  will  fail,  because  each 
of  the  two  principles  can  only  subsist  by  the  nega- 
tion of  the  other."  ^  He  truly  adds,  that  in  actual 
1  Auguste  Sabatier :  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Bdigion,  p.  211. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       95 

life  "  this  opposition  is  attenuated  by  the  fact  that 
in  all  Catholicism  there  is  a  latent  Protestantism, 
and  in  all  Protestantism  a  latent  Catholicism." 
But  the  Koman  Catholic  Church  is  quite  right 
in  refusing  to  tolerate  in  its  hierarchy  this  latent 
Protestantism;  and  Protestantism  will  never  be- 
come the  spiritual  power  it  ought  to  be  until  it 
frees  its  clergy  from  this  latent  Catholicism.  In 
vain  does  an  unhistorical  hierarchy  endeavor  to 
attach  authority  to  the  creeds  of  the  Church  while 
it  disavows  the  Roman  Catholic  definition  of  the 
Church.  Those  Protestants  who  endeavor  to  invest 
the  creeds  of  the  past  with  authority  really  revert, 
however  unintentionally  and  unconsciously,  to  the 
Catholic  affirmation  that  the  "  means  by  which  to 
arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  the  divine  truths  is 
attention  and  submission  to  the  voice  of  the  Pastors 
of  the  Church."  They  affirm  what  Zwingli  denies, 
"  that  the  meaning  of  the  celestial  Word  depends 
upon  the  judgment  of  men ; "  and  they  deny  what 
Zwingli  affirms,  that  "  faith  does  not  depend  upon 
the  discussions  of  men,  but  has  its  seat,  and  rests 
itself  invincibly  in  the  soul.  It  is  an  experience 
which  every  one  may  have."  ^ 

But  though  the  authority  of  the  Protestant  min- 
ister is  not  derived  from  the  Church,  it  is  enforced 
and  strengthened  by  the  Church.  His  authority 
rests,  primarily,  on  his  own  spiritual  consciousness, 
and  on  his  ability  to  evoke  some  answering  testi- 

^  Quoted  by  Auguste  Sabatier:  Eeligions  of  Authority,  p.  163. 


96  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

mony  in  the  dormant  spiritual  consciousness  of  his 
congregations,  but  it  is  confirmed  by  the  testimony 
of  a  great  body  of  men  and  women  in  common  with 
whom  he  has  that  spiritual  consciousness.  When 
he  bears  his  testimony  to  the  laws  of  righteousness, 
to  the  forgiveness  of  sins  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  to  the  pardon  and  peace  which  that  for- 
giveness of  sins  has  brought,  and  to  the  presence 
of  God  in  human  life,  enabKng  the  weakest  of  his 
children  to  say,  I  can  do  all  things  through  him 
that  strengtheneth  me,  he  bears  testimony  not  only 
to  his  own  experience,  but  to  that  experience  con- 
firmed by  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  wit- 
nesses. He  does  not  stand  alone ;  imnumbered  are 
the  voices  which  reinforce  his  message  with  a  loud 
Amen.  The  glorious  company  of  the  Apostles,  the 
goodly  fellowship  of  the  Prophets,  the  noble  army 
of  Martyrs,  the  holy  Church  throughout  all  the 
world,  unite  with  him  in  acknowledging  the  Father 
of  an  infinite  Majesty,  his  adorable,  true,  and  only 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter.  He  speaks 
for  the  Church  universal.  He  is  and  ought  to  feel 
himself  to  be  the  voice  of  an  innumerable  silent 
host,  and  he  speaks,  or  ought  to  speak,  with  the 
authority  of  their  spiritual  experiences  interpreted 
through  his  utterance. 

The  Keformers  for  the  authority  of  the  Church 
substituted  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  my  purpose  here  to  trace  the  history 
of  the  conflict  in  the  Protestant  churches  between 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       97 

the  two  conceptions  of  authority,  —  that  of  spiritual 
experience  in  the  individual  soul,  and  that  of  a 
written  record  of  a  revelation  external  to  man,  — 
for  both  conceptions  have  found  their  place  in  Pro- 
testant theology.  'But  despite  the  persistence  of  the 
spiritual  conception,  affirmed  by  Zwingli,  and  by 
Luther  in  his  earlier  writings,  reasserted  by  the 
more  spiritually-minded  of  the  English  Puritans, 
reappearing  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Inner  Light 
affirmed  by  the  Friends,  and  again  reasserting  itself 
in  what  in  our  time  is  called  the  New  Theology, 
it  may,  nevertheless,  be  said,  in  general  terms,  to 
quote  again  the  words  of  Sabatier,  that  "  the  Catho- 
lic system  finds  divine  infallibility  in  an  admirably 
organized  social  institution,  with  its  supreme  head, 
the  Pope  ;  the  Protestant  system  finds  infallibility 
in  a  book."  ^  It  would  be  easy  to  find  extreme  il- 
lustrations of  this  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of 
the  book.  Avoiding  these,  I  quote,  as  interpreta- 
tive of  eighteenth-century  New  England  Puritan- 
ism, from  one  of  the  more  liberal  of  the  Evangelical 
Congregational  divines,  Lyman  Beecher.  In  his 
lectures  on  "  Political  Atheism  "  he  declares  "  the 
impotency  of  reason  and  the  light  of  nature  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  man,  in  time  or  eternity ; " 
affirms  that  "  the  Bible,  in  its  adaptation  to  our 
necessities,  meets  all  our  exigencies,  personal, 
social,  and  civil,  in  a  manner  more  rational  and 
benignant  than  any  other  system  that  claims  a 
1  Auguate  Sabatier :  Rdigiona  of  AtUhority,  p.  186. 


98  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

parentage  from  God ; "  declares  that  "  we  must 
have  the  broad  seal  of  Heaven,  which  none  can 
coimterfeit,  set  upon  it  [the  Bible],  or  we  cannot 
give  it  credence ; "  and  affirms  that  this  seal  con- 
sists "  in  the  miracles  and  prophecies  connected 
with  that  book."    These  he  thus  defines : 

A  miracle  is  such  a  control,  or  suspension,  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  as  none  but  God,  who  made  the  world,  can 
accomplish  ;  and  in  such  relation  to  a  revelation  as  give 
it  the  Divine  attestation.  Prophecy  is  a  declaration  of 
future  events  which  no  finite  could  foresee  or  conjec- 
ture, any  more  than  it  could  work  miracles.^ 

This  theory  has  been  held  and  taught  by  Pro- 
testant theologians  in  different  forms  :  sometimes, 
that  the  Bible  was  dictated  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  the  writers,  as  amanuenses,  and  that  every  word 
and  letter  is  divine  and  authoritative ;  sometimes, 
that  this  divine  authority  inheres  only  in  the  origi- 
nal manuscripts,  and  that  the  errors  in  our  English 
Bible  are  due  to  imperfections  in  preservation, 
transmission,  and  translation  ;  sometimes,  that  in- 
spiration did  not  preserve  the  writers  from  scien- 
tific error,  and  that  the  writings  are  infallible  and 
inerrant  only  in  the  moral  and  religious  realm; 
sometimes,  that  this  inerrancy  and  authority  can 
be  predicated  only  of  parts  of  the  Bible,  as,  of  the 
New  Testament,  or,  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ.  But,  in  whatever  form,  and  with  whatever 
limitations,  this  doctrine  of  the  Bible  has  been  in- 

1  Lyman  Beecher :  Works^  vol.  i,  Lecture  IX,  pp.  203-206. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY       99 

culcated,  underlying  it  has  always  been  the  same 
substantial  conception,  —  that  man  can  have  no  im- 
mediate and  direct  knowledge  of  God  or  of  divine 
truth,  that  for  this  knowledge  he  is  dependent  upon 
an  external  revelation  furnished  through  a  book, 
and  that  the  evidence  that  this  book  does  furnish  a 
trustworthy  revelation  is  afforded  by  external  evi- 
dences, such  as  miracles  and  prophecy. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  here  the  historical 
process  by  which  this  conception  of  Biblical  author- 
ity has  been  gradually  undermined.  The  contrast 
between  the  conception  of  the  Bible  entertained  by 
the  liberal  orthodoxy  of  New  England  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  that  entertained 
by  the  same  school  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  will  be  apparent  to  the  reader  by 
comparing  Part  I  of  "  The  Self -Revelation  of  God," 
by  Dr.  Samuel  Harris,  Professor  of  Systematic 
Theology  in  Yale  University,  with  Dr.  Lyman 
Beeeher's  two  lectures,  on  "The  Necessity  of  a 
Revelation  from  God  to  Man,"  and  on  "  The  Bible 
a  Revelation  from  God  to  Man." 

Two  disconnected  paragraphs  from  Dr.  Harris's 
work  must  suffice  here : 

If  God  reveals  himself  it  must  be  through  the  medium 
of  the  finite  and  to  finite  beings.  The  revelation  must 
be  commensurate  with  the  medium  through  which  it  is 
made  and  with  the  development  of  the  minds  to  whom  it 
is  made.  Hence  both  the  revelation  itself  and  man's 
apprehension  of  the  God  revealed  must  be  progressive, 


100  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and,  at  any  point  of  time,  incomplete.  Hence,  while  it 
is  the  true  God  who  reveals  himself,  man's  apprehension 
of  God  at  different  stages  of  his  own  development  may- 
be not  only  incomplete,  but  marred  by  gross  misconcep- 
tions. 

God's  revelation  does  not  consist  of  inditing  the  Bible 
and  giving  it  to  men  to  convert  them  to  the  life  of  faith 
and  love.  He  reveals  himself  in  the  grand  courses  of 
his  own  action  in  the  creation,  preservation  and  progres- 
sive evolution  of  the  universe,  in  providential  and  moral 
government,  and  in  redemption.  .  .  .  What  God  reveals 
is  himself  as  distinguished  from  a  religion.  He  reveals 
himself  in  the  experience  of  the  person  as  the  quickener 
of  his  faith  and  love,  as  the  being  with  whom  he  com- 
munes in  worship,  who  is  with  him  as  a  present  helper 
in  the  work,  and  the  burdens,  the  joys,  and  the  sorrows 
of  his  life.  This  communion  with  God  is  religion,  but  it 
is  so  because  God  has  revealed  himself,  and  not  a  religion ; 
and  the  man  has  found  God  in  his  revelation  of  himself, 
and  so  has  found  access  to  him  in  communion.^ 

The  difference  between  these  two  conceptions  of 
the  Bible  is  radical.  The  first  regards  the  Bible  as 
a  book  indited  by  God,  and  containing  infallible 
information  concerning  religion  which  man  could 
obtain  in  no  other  way;  the  second  regards  the 
Bible  as  a  book  expressing  the  experiences  which 
devout  men  have  had  of  God  in  their  own  souls, 
and  have  uttered  in  their  own  language,  each  one 
according  to  his  own  temperament.  The  statesman 
saw  God  in  human  conscience,  and  interpreted  him 
1  Samuel  Harris :  The  Self -Revelation  of  God,  pp.  8,  58. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY     101 

as  the  authority  for  all  just  law,  human  and  divine. 
The  historian  saw  God  working  out  divine  ends 
through  all  the  tangled  course  of  human  history, 
and  interpreted  that  history  as  a  process  of  human 
development  divinely  guided  and  controlled  to  a 
divine  result.  The  poet  saw  God  in  nature  and  in 
human  experience,  and  wrote  his  poem,  whether  it 
were  an  epic,  like  the  Book  of  Job,  or  lyrics,  hke 
those  contained  in  the  Hebrew  Psalter,  to  interpret 
his  vision  of  God,  and  inspire  others  with  a  like 
vision.  The  philosopher,  whether  ethical  or  theo- 
logical, saw  a  moral  order  in  the  universe,  and  God 
inspiring  that  order,  and  making  it  conqueror  over 
the  chaos  which  sin  had  introduced  into  the  world, 
and  he  wrote  to  give,  through  philosophy,  an  inter- 
pretation of  his  vision  of  an  immanent  God  and  his 
hope  of  the  final  achievement  of  God's  kingdom 
on  the  earth.  This  literature  has  an  authority,  but 
it  is  spiritual,  not  external.  The  evidence  which 
substantiates  that  authority  is  spiritual,  not  ex- 
ternal. "We  do  not  believe  in  the  Bible  because  we 
believe  in  miracles ;  it  would  be  more  true  to  say 
that  we  believe  in  miracles  because  we  believe  in 
the  Bible.  It  is  the  character  of  the  Bible,  and 
its  spiritual  efficacy  and  value,  not  extraordinary 
events  occurring  eighteen  centuries  ago,  which  give 
to  the  Bible  its  authority.  Says  Samuel  Taylor 
Coleridge : 

In  the  Bible  there  is  more  that  finds  me  than  I  have 
experienced  in  all  other  books  put  together ;  the  words 


102  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

of  the  Bible  find  me  at  greater  depths  of  my  being  ;  and 
whatever  finds  me  brings  with  it  an  irresistible  evidence 
of  its  having  proceeded  from  the  Holy  Spirit.^ 

We  believe  that  it  is  inspired  because  we  find  it 
inspiring.  Our  experience  confirms  its  revelation. 
We  read  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  and  looking  back 
along  our  pathway,  our  experience  of  life  replies, 
God  is  also  our  Shepherd.  We  read  the  eighth 
chapter  of  Romans,  and  recalling  our  song  in  the 
night  of  our  sorrow,  our  souls  reply.  Neither  shall 
death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor 
powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord.  The  Bible  is  an  authority  because 
in  the  Bible  God  finds  us  and  we  find  God.  When 
the  Bible  contradicts  our  spiritual  consciousness,  we 
refuse  to  accept  its  dicta,  —  as  when  it  seems  to 
attach  the  divine  approval  to  the  wholesale  slaughter 
of  the  Canaanites.  When  it  contradicts  our  reason, 
we  seek  to  find  some  other  interpretation,  —  as 
when  it  seems  to  say  that  the  sun  stood  still  in  or- 
der to  prolong  miraculously  a  day  of  battle,  or  that 
a  big  fish  swallowed  a  prophet  in  order,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  preserve  him  from  drowning,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  compel  him  to  take  up  a  mission 
which  he  had  refused.  The  minister  in  our  time 
may  profitably  use  the  Bible  as  an  authority,  but 
he  can  use  it  as  an  authority  only  as  he  uses  it  to 
^  S.  T.  Coleridge :  Confessions  of  an  Inquiring  Spirit,  Letter  H. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY     103 

interpret  to  men  their  own  spiritual  experience, 
to  confirm  that  spiritual  experience,  or  to  reveal  to 
them  truths  of  life  to  which  their  own  spiritual 
experience  responds  with  instinctive  approbation. 
Even  its  distinctively  historical  revelations  find 
their  substantiation  in  the  answer  of  the  individual 
soul.  The  evidence  for  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  character  of  Christ  himself ;  it  is  the  fact  that 
when  we  look  upon  this  character  thus  portrayed, 
this  life  thus  lived,  we  say.  This  character,  this  life, 
presents  a  divine  ideal ;  this  character  is  worthy  of 
our  highest  reverence,  this  life,  of  our  sincerest  imi- 
tation. 

There  is  also  an  authority  in  the  reason.  But  the 
authority  of  the  preacher  does  not  depend  upon  his 
logical  powers.  The  reason  is  rather  a  critical  than 
a  creative  faculty.  The  scientific  method  can  at 
best  only  deduce  hypotheses  respecting  the  invisible 
world  from  observations  of  visible  phenomena.  The 
relation  of  the  logical  faculty  to  the  religious  life 
is  well  defined  by  Paul,  in  a  verse  which  is  often 
regarded  as  though  it  were  nothing  but  a  combina- 
tion of  four  separated  aphorisms,  but  which  is  really 
the  Pauline  philosophy  of  life  condensed  into  four 
pregnant  sentences :  "  Quench  not  the  Spirit ;  de- 
spise not  prophesyings  ;  prove  all  things ;  hold  fast 
that  which  is  good."  ^  Every  man  has  a  spiritual 
nature ;  he  is  able  to  look  upon  the  things  that 
are  unseen  and  are  eternal :  let  him  not  quench  it. 
1  1  Thess.  V,  19-21. 


104  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

There  are  prophets,  "  men  of  moral  genius  to  whom 
we  owe  ideals  of  duty  and  visions  of  moral  perfec- 
tion which  ordinary  mankind  could  never  have  at- 
tained : "  do  not  despise  them.  For  knowledge  of 
the  outer  world,  study  the  works  of  the  great  sci- 
entists, the  men  of  observation ;  for  knowledge  of 
the  inner  world,  study  the  works  of  the  poets  and 
prophets,  the  men  of  insight.  But  take  no  man's 
testimony,  be  he  scientist  or  prophet,  with  unques- 
tioning credence.  It  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether 
the  credulity  which  sometimes  passes  for  faith  has 
not  inflicted  on  the  world  more  injury  than  the  skep- 
ticism which  often  passes  for  irreligion.  The  alleged 
revelations  of  a  Joe  Smith  or  a  Mrs.  Eddy,  accepted 
by  too  confiding  natures,  have  probably  done  more 
to  hinder  or  to  divert  the  moral  progress  of  the  race 
than  the  respectful  agnosticism  of  Herbert  Spencer 
or  even  the  scoffing  agnosticism  of  Robert  Ingersoll. 
And  this  leads  us  to  the  true  test  by  which  all  visions 
of  poets  and  prophets  are  to  be  tried.  Says  Jonathan 
Edwards :  "  The  degree  in  which  our  experience 
is  productive  of  practice  shows  the  degree  in  which 
our  experience  is  spiritual  and  divine."  Says  St. 
Teresa :  "  A  genuine,  heavenly  vision  yields  to  her 
[the  soul]  a  harvest  of  ineffable  spiritual  riches, 
and  an  admirable  renewal  of  bodily  strength."  Says 
William  James :  "  TTie  way  in  which  it  works 
on  the  whole  is  Dr.  Maudsley's  final  test  of  a 
belief.  This  is  our  own  empiricist  criterion ;  and 
this  criterion  the  stoutest  insisters  on  supernatural 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY     105 

origin  have  also  been  forced  to  use  in  the  end."  ^ 
These  authors  do  but  repeat,  in  another  form,  the 
Pauline  test:  Hold  fast  that  which  is  good.  The 
visions  which  stand  the  test  of  experience  are  visions 
whose  guidance  we  are  to  accept.  The  function  of 
the  logical  faculty  is  less  the  discovery  of  truth  than 
protection  from  falsehood.  And  this,  which  is 
Paul's  declaration,  is  the  affirmation  also  of  modern 
philosophy :  "  The  greatest  and  perhaps  sole  use  of 
philosophy  is  after  aU  merely  negative,  and  instead 
of  discovering  truth  has  only  the  modest  merit  of 
preventing  error."  ^ 

The  Christian  minister  must  speak  with  power  op 
he  speaks  in  vain.  He  must  overcome  the  currents 
which  sweep  men  backward  and  downward  toward 
the  animal  condition  from  which  they  are  gradually 
emerging,  —  appetite,  sensuality,  avarice,  lust  of 
power,  love  of  applause,  seK-conceit,  seK-wiU.  This 
he  cannot  do  with  pleasant  literary  essays,  pious  or 
pungent  phrase-making,  theological  philosophizing, 
or  the  exhibition  of  beliefs,  once  living,  now  dead, 
and  preserved  like  mummies  in  the  tombs  of  the 
past.  He  must  speak  with  authority.  That  author- 
ity must  be  either  in  some  external  standard  or  in 
spiritual  experiences  which  he  has  evoked  in  the 
souls  of  those  to  whom  he  is  speaking.    If  he  wishes 

^  William  James :  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  19- 
21,  where  these  quotations  from  Edwards  and  St.  Teresa  may  be 
found. 

2  This  saying  is  attributed  to  Immannel  Kant,  though  I  have 
not  been  able  to  verify  the  quotation. 


106  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

to  depend  on  an  external  authority,  the  Boman 
Catholic,  or  the  Greek  Catholic,  or  the  Anglican 
Catholic  Church  is  a  better  external  authority  than 
a  book,  because  it  is  more  vital  and  more  flexible. 
It  is  able  to  adjust  its  teachings  to  the  differing 
needs  of  different  generations.  He  who  has  no 
spiritual  authority  in  himself,  and  therefore  can 
awaken  no  spiritual  authority  in  his  hearers,  should 
either  abandon  the  Christian  ministry  or  seek  to 
f ulfiU  it  in  some  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  depends  for  his  authority  on 
his  spiritual  experience  and  on  his  power  to  evoke 
spiritual  experience  in  the  men  and  women  before 
him,  then  he  belongs  in  some  branch  of  the  Protest- 
ant Church. 

The  fundamental  question  is  easily  stated :  Is  the 
minister's  authority  without  or  within  ?  Have  we 
preachers  to  go  to  a  vicegerent  and  representative 
of  God,  or  have  we  to  go  to  God  himself,  sitting  at 
our  side,  walking  in  our  path,  manifesting  himself 
in  our  experience  ?  If  the  latter,  we  may  enforce 
the  authority  with  which  we  speak  by  the  concur- 
rent testimony  of  the  living  Church,  and  by  the 
revelatory  experiences  recorded  in  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  we  may  use 
the  scientific  method  to  test  those  experiences,  fear- 
lessly asking.  Do  they  work  well?  and  fearlessly 
and  impartially  recording  the  answer  of  history  to 
that  question.  But  the  real  secret  of  our  authority 
must  lie  in  our  own  consciousness  of  sin  forgiven 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY     107 

and  life  imparted  by  an  ever-present  God,  and  in 
our  power  to  reproduce  in  other  souls  the  life  wliich 
God  has  produced  in  our  own. 

Before  passing  to  consider  what  are  the  qualifica- 
tions necessary  to  enable  the  modern  minister  to 
give  with  authority  that  message  of  peace  and  power 
which  it  is  his  peculiar  and  distinctive  function  to 
give  to  the  world,  I  wish  to  consider  more  fully  the 
distinctive  character  of  that  message. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

Tedb  prophet,  says  Ewald,  is  one  who  "has  seen 
or  heard  something  which  does  not  concern  himself, 
or  not  himself  alone,  which  will  not  let  him  rest, 
for  which  he  must  work  by  his  words.  .  .  .  He 
has  exactly  the  feeling  of  having  received  a  special 
trust,  a  mission,  an  errand  from  his  God,  distinctly 
to  declare,  in  spite  of  all  hindrances,  at  the  right 
place  the  higher  voice  which  he  cannot  any  longer 
hide  and  suppress  within  him.  He  acts  and  speaks 
not  of  his  own  accord ;  a  higher  One  impels  him,  to 
resist  whom  is  sin ;  it  is  his  God,  who  is  also  the 
God  of  those  to  whom  he  must  speak.  And  those  to 
whom  he  speaks  often  come  by  his  proclamation  to 
feel  their  God  as  alive  within  them ;  they  hear  what 
they  sought  for  but  did  not  find ;  they  surmise  and 
recognize  in  him  who  declares  to  them  what  they 
had  long  sought,  the  preacher  and  interpreter  of  his 
own  and  their  God,  the  mediator  between  them  and 
God."^  It  is  this  divine  impulse  supplying  the 
motive,  this  divine  theme  furnishing  the  message, 
and  this  divine  object  to  bring  men  to  feel  their 
God  as  alive  within  them,  which  distinguishes  the 

1  G.  H.  A.  von  Ewald  :  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  i,  7. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    109 

Christian  minister  from  men  of  other  professions, 
which  in  some  respects  closely  resemble  his  own. 
He  is  both  like  and  unlike  the  journalist,  the  author, 
the  teacher,  and  the  moral  reformer.  A  comparison 
of  the  Christian  fiiinistry  with  these  analogous  pro- 
fessions will  help  to  make  clear  his  specific  func- 
tion. 

I.  The  office  of  the  journalist  is  twofold :  to  re- 
port the  history  of  the  day,  and  to  interpret  its 
meaning.  In  the  first  work,  that  of  reporter,  the 
modem  American  press  exhibits  great  enterprise, 
though  not  always  great  discrimination ;  in  the 
second  work,  that  of  interpreter,  it  is  not  always 
equally  successful.  Its  interpretations  are  affected 
by  the  demands  of  its  subscribers,  by  the  interests 
of  its  advertisers,  by  the  relation  of  events  to  its 
favored  political  or  ecclesiastical  organization ;  and 
when  it  escapes  all  these  belittling,  if  not  malign 
influences,  it  is  still  apt  to  consider  the  immediate, 
not  the  ultimate,  the  provincial,  not  the  world-wide, 
effect  of  the  event  whose  significance  it  endeavors 
to  explain. 

The  minister  is  not  a  reporter  of  events.  He  may 
on  occasion  make  himself  one  by  a  first-hand  study 
of  some  public  incident  on  which  he  wishes  to  speak. 
He  may  go  to  the  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania  during 
a  great  coal  strike,  or  to  Colorado  during  a  time  of 
mob  law,  and  return  to  give  his  congregation  the 
results  of  his  investigations.  It  is  always  doubtful, 
however,  whether  he  can  investigate  as  well  as  the 


110  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

trained  reporter,  or  secure  as  accurate  and  trust- 
worthy results  as  he  might  secure  by  a  careful  col- 
lection and  comparison  of  different  newspaper 
reports.  On  the  other  hand,  the  work  of  interpre- 
tation is  sometimes  the  minister's  ;  all  the  more  so, 
because  this  function  is  so  often  ignored,  refused, 
or  iU  performed  by  the  journalist.  He  may  take 
a  current  event  for  his  text,  as  Christ  on  one  occa- 
sion took  the  massacre  of  the  Galileans  and  the 
disaster  at  the  tower  of  Siloam  for  a  text.i  The 
application  of  eternal  principles  to  current  prob- 
lems may  often  be  his  duty,  as  it  was  the  duty, 
courageously  fulfilled,  by  the  Hebrew  prophets. 

In  this  work  of  interpreting  public  events  there 
are  three  principles  by  which  the  minister  should 
be  guided. 

He  should  beware  of  preaching  to  the  newspa- 
pers ;  beware  of  selecting  a  topic  because  the  gen- 
eral public  is  interested  in  it  and  he  shares  the 
general  interest.  The  sermon  is  a  message  to  the 
congregation  that  listens  to  the  preacher,  and  to 
none  other.  If,  as  the  minister  thinks  of  that  con- 
gregation, of  the  men  immersed  in  the  temptations 
of  business  life,  of  wives  and  mothers  wearied  with 
household  cares,  or  alternately  dazzled  and  satiated 
with  society  charms,  of  the  young  men  and  maidens 
with  their  eager  hopes,  their  perilous  surroundings, 
their  vibrant  life,  the  theme  which  it  appears  to 
him  will  help  them  most  in  the  experiences  of  the 
^  Luke  xiii,  1-5. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   111 

coming  week  is  the  coal  strike  in  Pennsylvania  or 
the  mob  law  in  Colorado,  he  may  make  that  his 
theme.  But  he  should  select  it  solely  because  it  is 
what  his  congregation  needs,  not  because  it  is  what 
the  daily  press  are  talking  about. 

If  he  selects  such  a  theme,  he  should  speak  of 
the  duties  of  his  own  congregation.  He  should  not 
chide  the  violence  of  workingmen  in  preaching  to  a 
congregation  of  employers,  or  the  greed  of  capitalists 
in  preaching  to  a  congregation  of  workingmen,  or 
the  superstition  and  ignorance  of  negroes  in  preach- 
ing to  Anglo-Saxons,  or  the  cruelty  of  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  mob  in  preaching  to  a  congregation  of  negroes. 
If  every  white  preacher  would  preach  to  inspire 
white  men  to  take  up  the  white  men's  burden,  and 
every  negro  preacher  to  inspire  negro  men  to  bear 
bravely  their  black  men's  burden,  and  every  preacher 
to  employers  would  speak  of  the  duties  of  employers 
to  the  employed,  and  every  preacher  to  workingmen 
of  the  duties  of  workingmen  to  their  employers,  the 
race  problem  and  the  labor  problem  would  be  much 
nearer  their  solution  than  they  are  to-day.  Class 
preaching  can  have  but  one  effect,  —  to  intensify 
class  prejudice  and  widen  the  gulf  between  the 
classes ;  and  class  preaching,  by  which  I  mean 
preaching  to  one  class  on  the  sins  and  the  duties 
of  another  class,  is  unfortunately  very  common  in 
America. 

In  preaching  on  current  events  the  minister 
should  interpret  those  events  in  the  light  of  eternal 


112  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

principles.  He  should  measure  them  by  their  rela- 
tion, not  to  a  party,  nor  to  a  church,  but  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.  He  should  tell  us  whether  they 
are  promoting  or  hindering  that  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  which  constitute  the  kingdom  of 
God.  He  should  give  to  his  congregation  the  light 
which  is  thrown  upon  such  events  by  the  Beatitudes 
and  the  Golden  Eule.  He  should  get  for  himself, 
and  give  to  his  congregation,  the  long  look,  should 
treat  current  events  in  the  spirit  in  which  the  He- 
brew prophets  treated  them,  should  judge  them  not 
by  twentieth-century  standards,  but  by  the  standards 
of  the  Last  Great  Day.  These  three  principles  are 
all  illustrated  by  Christ's  method  ;  thus,  on  the  oc- 
casion to  which  I  have  alluded  above,^  he  preached 
to  his  immediate  auditors,  he  turned  their  thoughts 
from  the  calamity  which  had  befallen  others  to  the 
sins  which  they  themselves  had  perpetrated,  and  he 
brought  to  bear  on  those  sins  the  light  of  the  last 
judgment. 

II.  Literature, "  in  its  more  restricted  sense,"  is 
defined  by  the  Century  Dictionary  as  "  the  class  of 
writings  in  which  expression  and  form  in  connection 
with  ideas  of  permanent  or  universal  interest  are 
characteristic  or  essential  features."  The  sermon, 
then,  is  literature,  and  the  preacher  an  author ;  for 
the  sermon  is  a  writing  or  speech  "  in  which  expres- 
sion and  form  in  connection  with  ideas  of  permanent 
and  universal  interest  are  characteristic  and  essen- 

^  See  ante,  p.  110. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    113 

tial  features."  And  yet  tlie  difference  between  the 
work  of  the  preacher  and  the  work  of  the  author, 
whether  poet,  dramatist,  novelist,  historian,  bio- 
grapher, or  essayist,  is  fundamental.  The  emphasis 
of  the  author  is  on  the  form  and  expression,  of  the 
preacher  on  the  ideas  of  permanent  and  universal 
interest ;  the  object  of  the  author  is  to  interest,  of 
the  preacher  to  convince  and  comfort ;  the  author 
seeks  to  interpret  life,  the  preacher  to  impart  life ; 
if  the  poem,  the  novel,  the  biography,  the  history, 
or  even  the  essay  is  didactic,  it  is  defective ;  if  the 
sermon  is  not  didactic,  it  is  no  true  sermon.  We  ask 
concerning  the  book,  Is  it  artistic  ?  The  sermon  is 
sometimes  the  more  effective  for  being  inartistic. 
In  brief,  the  author  is  an  artist ;  the  test  of  his  book, 
poem,  or  story  is  its  artistic  quality.  The  preacher 
is  not  an  artist ;  the  test  of  his  sermon  is  its  life- 
giving  power.  A  sermon  is  not  an  oration.  If  there 
can  be  anything  more  foolish  than  for  a  congrega- 
tion to  imagine  that  one  man  can  give  fifty-two  ora- 
tions a  year,  it  is  for  that  man  himself  to  imagine 
that  he  can  do  so.  The  great  orators  of  history, 
Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Burke,  Chatham,  Webster, 
Calhoun,  Sumner,  have  given  possibly  a  score  of 
orations  in  a  lifetime.  It  would  be  preposterous  to 
expect  from  a  minister  two  score  of  orations  and 
more  a  year. 

The  power  of  a  sermon  is  interpreted  in  that 
Roman  Catholic  title  for  the  priest,  —  Father.  The 
father  gathers  his  children  about  him  in  the  gloam- 


114  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ing  and  talks  to  them ;  teUs  them  a  story,  gives  them 
counsel.  It  is  not  an  artistic  story ;  it  is  not  very 
eloquent  counsel.  If  it  were  taken  down  by  a  short- 
hand writer  and  printed  in  a  book,  it  would  not  be 
read  by  a  great  number  of  readers.  But  the  chil- 
dren want  it,  and  they  would  rather  have  the  coimsel 
that  father  gives  than  any  other  counsel  from  any 
other  man.  Its  power  is  due  to  the  personal  relation. 
The  power  of  the  sermon  must  be  the  power  of  a 
personal  relation ;  the  counsel  of  a  personal  friend 
to  personal  friends ;  the  revelation  of  God  by  a  soul 
full  of  his  Spirit  to  a  congregation  who  need  him. 
Preachers  should  be  afraid  of  great  sermons ;  their 
congregations  are.  The  minister  may,  perhaps, 
preach  one  occasionally  by  accident,  but  it  always 
ought  to  be  an  accident.  The  value  of  the  sermon 
lies  in  its  power  to  impart  life  to  the  congregation. 
If  the  congregation  go  away  admiring  the  sermon, 
the  minister  has  failed ;  if  they  go  away  forgetting 
the  sermon,  but  carrying  with  them  an  impulse  to 
a  new  life,  coming  they  know  not  whence  or  how, 
he  has  succeeded.  If,  when  he  has  preached  his 
sermon,  some  one  comes  up  after  the  service  and 
says,  "  That  was  a  great  sermon  you  gave  us  this 
morning,"  let  the  preacher  go  home  for  an  hour  of 
humiliation,  fasting,  and  prayer;  but  if  he  says, 
"  Thank  you !  you  helped  me  this  morning,"  let 
the  preacher  go  home  to  give  God  thanks. 

m.  The  preacher  is  a  teacher,  but  more  than  a 
teacher.    The  two  professions  are  alike  in  that  they 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   115 

both  aim  at  the  development  of  character  through 
the  ministry  of  truth.  And  yet  they  differ,  both  in 
the  immediate  object  of  their  respective  vocations 
and  in  the  ultimate  source  of  their  power.  They  both 
address  themselves  to  the  wiQ  ;  but  the  one  reaches 
it  indirectly  through  the  intellectual  powers,  the 
other  directly  through  the  motive  powers. 

It  is  the  function  of  the  teacher  to  gather  out  of 
the  reservoired  experience  of  the  past  what  it  has  for 
us  and  give  it  to  the  oncoming  generation.  We 
wonder  sometimes  that  the  world  does  not  grow  wise 
more  rapidly.  Six  thousand  years,  and  so  little 
progress!  Not  six  thousand  years;  the  world  of 
men  is  only  about  forty  or  fifty  years  old,  sixty  at 
the  utmost ;  for  the  world  of  men  is  no  older  than 
a  generation.  The  babes  come  into  the  infant  school 
knowing  no  more  than  their  fathers  knew,  and,  when 
they  have  learned  what  this  life  has  to  teach  them, 
they  go  out  into  whatever  school  there  lies  beyond, 
we  know  not.  It  is  the  function  of  the  teacher  to 
take  the  reservoired  experience  of  the  past  and  give 
as  much  of  it  as  is  possible  to  the  children  as  they 
come  upon  the  stage.  In  this  educational  process, 
control,  discipline,  training,  are  necessary,  but  they 
are  incidental  and  subsidiary.  As  the  process  of 
education  goes  on,  this  disciplinary  work  lessens, 
and  finally  disappears  in  the  university,  where  there 
is  practically  no  discipline,  and  the  pupils  are  left 
to  self-government.  The  education  itself  also  tends 
to  affect  the  character  in  the  springs  of  action. 


116  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Thus  mathematics  perfectly  taught  tends  to  develop 
exactitude  of  character,  and  literature  breadth  of 
human  sympathy.  But  this  tendency  again  is  in- 
cidental and  subsidiary.  The  object  of  the  teacher 
is  to  give  his  pupils  the  benefit  of  the  world's  ex- 
perience, and  he  largely  leaves  that  experience  to 
convey  its  own  lessons.  The  best  teachers  moralize 
but  little. 

The  preacher,  on  the  other  hand,  appeals  not 
to  the  experience  of  mankind,  but  to  the  intuitions 
of  the  individual  soul ;  he  does  not  seek  to  inform 
a  pupil  as  to  the  experiences  of  others,  he  endeav- 
ors to  awaken  in  the  heart  of  his  hearer  a  new 
experience.  His  object  is  to  bring  the  individual 
soul  into  communion  with  the  living  God,  and  so 
inspire  in  him  a  life  of  loyalty  to  God,  and  to  do 
this  by  inspiring  in  the  individual  such  a  perception 
of  the  Infinite,  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  will 
awaken  in  him  the  desire,  and  form  within  him  the 
purpose,  to  lead  a  Christlike  life  and  attain  a  Christ- 
like character.  Let  us  recur  to  Professor  Huxley's 
definition  of  education  :  "  Education  is  the  instruc- 
tion of  intellect  in  the  laws  of  nature  .  .  .  and  the 
fashioning  of  the  affections  and  the  will  into  an 
earnest  and  loving  desire  to  be  in  harmony  with 
those  laws."  ^  It  is  the  primary  work  of  the  teacher 
to  instruct  the  intellect,  the  primary  work  of  the 
ministry  to  fashion  the  affections  and  the  will: 
the  first  furnishes  information,  the  second  power ; 
^  See  ante,  p.  58. 


OF  THE 


x 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    117 

the  first  develops  the  observing  and  reasoning  facul- 
ties, the  second  the  motives ;  the  first  trains  the 
pilot,  the  second  educates  the  engineer.  No  doubt 
the  teacher  promotes  morality,  and  the  preacher  in- 
telligence ;  but  intelligence  is  the  professed  aim  of 
the  teacher,  and  morality  the  professed  aim  of  the 
preacher ;  the  specific  work  of  the  teacher  is  train- 
ing, of  the  preacher  inspiration. 

But  even  more  than  the  difference  in  the  respec- 
tive aims  of  the  teacher  and  the  preacher  is  the 
difference  in  the  secret  of  their  power.  The  teacher 
draws  upon  the  outward  and  visible  experience  of 
mankind,  the  preacher  appeals  to  the  inner  and  the 
spiritual  life  of  men  ;  the  power  of  the  one  is  learn- 
ing, of  the  other  piety ;  the  one  imparts  what  he 
has  acquired  from  the  experience  of  others,  the 
other  transmits  what  he  has  received  from  his  God. 
No  one  can  be  a  good  teacher  without  scholarship, 
because  it  is  the  function  of  the  teacher  to  impart 
to  others  what  scholarship  has  imparted  to  him ; 
but  there  have  been  many  efficient  teachers  not 
remarkable  for  their  godliness.  .  No  one  can  be  a 
good  preacher  without  godliness,  because  it  is  the 
function  of  the  preacher  to  give  men  acquaintance 
with  God ;  but  there  have  been  many  effective 
preachers  who  were  not  scholars.  Says  Herbert 
Spencer : 

Unlike  the  ordinary  consciousness,  the  religious  con- 
sciousness is  concerned  with  that  which  lies  beyond  the 
sphere  of  sense.   A  brute  thinks  only  of  the  things  which 


118  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

can  be  seen,  heard,  tested,  etc.,  and  the  like  is  true  of 
the  untaught  child,  the  deaf-mute,  and  the  lowest  sav- 
age. But  the  developing  man  has  thoughts  about  exist- 
ences which  he  regards  as  usually  intangible,  inaudible, 
invisible ;  and  yet  which  he  regards  as  operative  upon 
him.^ 

The  teacher  deals  primarily  with  the  ordinary  con- 
sciousness, and  his  power  depends  upon  his  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  lies  within  the  sphere  of  sense ; 
the  preacher  deals  with  that  which  lies  beyond  the 
ordinary  consciousness,  and  his  power  depends  on 
his  ability  to  make  real  to  men  and  operative  upon 
them  a  spiritual  world  which  is  intangible,  inaudi- 
ble, and  invisible.  The  teacher  draws  his  lessons 
from  what  has  been,  the  preacher  awakens  a  hope  of 
what  yet  may  be ;  the  teacher  conveys  a  knowledge 
of  the  actual,  the  preacher  inspires  a  conception  of 
the  possible ;  the  teacher  enforces  wisdom  by  les- 
sons drawn  from  the  history  of  past  experience,  the 
preacher  presents  a  realized  ideal  of  life  in  a  Divine 
Person  who  teaches  us  the  principles  of  life,  and 
reveals  to  us  the  spirit  of  life,  and  so  shows  us  what 
we  may  ourselves  become.^ 

IV.  The  minister  is  a  moral  reformer,  but  he  is 
more  than  a  moral  reformer,  and  he  makes  a  mis- 

^  Herbert  Spencer :  Religious  Retrospect  and  Prospect,  *'  Eccle- 
siastical Institutions,"  p.  827. 

^  See  this  distinction  between  secular  teaching  and  the  work 
of  the  preacher  stated  with  characteristic  clearness  and  beauty 
by  James  Martineau,  in  "  Factors  of  Spiritual  Growth  in  Modem 
Society,"  Essays,  iv,  75-91. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    119 

take  if  he  substitutes  leading  a  moral  reform  for 
preaching  the  gospel. 

Out  of  personal  sins  grow  social  abuses ;  out  of 
self-indulgent  appetite,  the  saloon  ;  out  of  ambition, 
political  despotism ;  out  of  covetousness,  industrial 
oppression.  The  reformer  attacks  the  social  abuse, 
—  the  saloon,  the  political  despotism,  the  industrial 
oppression.  The  minister  may  or  may  not  join  with 
him  in  this  attack.  Whether  he  does  or  not  will 
depend  partly  upon  his  temperament,  partly  upon 
the  nature  of  the  institutions  of  his  country,  partly 
upon  the  conditions  of  the  time  in  which  he  lives. 
But  whatever  his  temperament,  whatever  the  insti- 
tutions or  the  conditions  of  his  time,  if  he  is  a  true 
preacher  he  is  not  content  merely  to  attack  the 
social  abuses  which  have  grown  out  of  personal  sin. 
He  will  seek  to  extirpate  the  appetite,  not  merely 
to  overthrow  the  saloon ;  to  inspire  ambition  with 
the  spirit  of  service,  not  merely  to  destroy  the  mon- 
archy, the  machine,  or  the  boss ;  to  mak6  acquisi- 
tiveness subservient  to  benevolence,  not  merely  to 
substitute  free  labor  for  slavery,  or  a  socialistic  or- 
der for  unregulated  competition.  For  he  sees  that 
unregulated  appetite  is  responsible  for  the  dyspep- 
tic as  well  as  for  the  drunkard,  that  ignoble  am- 
bition substitutes  the  irresponsible  boss  for  the 
absolute  czar,  and  greed  of  wealth  inflicts  parallel 
if  not  equal  cruelties  on  the  slaves  of  America,  the 
serfs  in  Russia,  and  the  factory  hands  in  England. 
If  the  minister  attacks  injurious  social  or  politi- 


120  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

cal  forces,  as  slavery  in  industry  or  monarcliy  in 
government,  it  is  because  these  forms  violate  the 
laws  of  God,  thwart  the  free  development  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  prevent  the  consummation  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  To  the  moral  reformer  reform  is  an 
end,  to  the  preacher  it  is  only  a  means.  His  object 
is  always  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  and 
so  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  social  order.^  His 
inspiration  is  always  the  love  of  God,  and  of  men 
as  the  children  of  God,  and  a  hope  in  him  as  the 
Kedeemer  of  the  world. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was,  partly  owing  to  his 
temperament,  partly  to  his  Puritan  education,  and 
partly  to  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  preeminently 
a  moral  reformer.  But  no  one  has  stated  more 
clearly  than  he  this  principle,  that  to  the  preacher 
moral  reform  ought  always  to  be  a  means,  not  an 
end,  the  end  being  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  that 
to  him  the  inspiration  ought  to  be  not  merely 
humanity,  but  love  for  and  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Our  highest  and  strongest  reason  for  seeking  justice 
among  men  is  not  the  benefit  to  men  themselves,  exceed- 
ingly strong  as  that  motive  is  and  ought  to  be.  We  do 
not  join  the  movement  party  of  our  times  simply  be- 
cause we  are  inspired  by  an  inward  and  constitutional 
benevolence.  We  are  conscious  of  both  these  motives 
and  of  many  other  collateral  ones ;  but  we  are  earnestly 
conscious  of  another  feeling  stronger  than  either,  that 
lives  unimpaired  when  these  faint,  yea,  that  gives  vigor 

^  See  ante,  chap,  ii,  pp.  47-54. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   121 

and  persistence  to  these  feelings  when  they  are  discour- 
aged; and  that  is  a  strong,  personal,  enthusiastic  love 
for  Jesus  Christ  I  regard  the  movement  of  the  world 
toward  justice  and  rectitude  to  be  of  His  inspiration. 
I  believe  my  own  aspirations,  having  a  base  in  my  nat- 
ural faculties,  to  be  influenced  and  directed  by  Christ's 
spirit.  The  mingled  affection  and  adoration  which  I 
feel  for  Him  is  the  strongest  feeling  that  I  know. 
Whether  I  will  or  not,  whether  it  be  a  phantasy  or  a 
sober  sentiment,  the  fact  is  the  same  nevertheless,  that 
that  which  will  give  pleasure  to  Christ's  heart  and  bring 
to  my  consciousness  a  smile  of  gladness  on  His  face  in 
behalf  of  my  endeavor,  is  incalculably  more  to  me  than 
any  other  motive.  I  would  work  for  the  slave  for  his 
own  sake,  but  I  am  sure  that  I  would  work  ten  times  as 
earnestly  for  the  slave  for  Christ's  sake.^ 

V.  But  the  minister  is  not  only  more  than  a 
journalist,  an  author,  a  secular  teacher,  or  a  moral 
reformer ;  he  is  also  more  than  a  teacher  of  theology. 

Theology  is  not  religion.  EeHgion  is  the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man ;  theology  is  what  philo- 
sophers have  thought  about  that  life. 

The  scorn  for  creeds  is  a  thoughtless  scorn.  He 
who  says,  I  do  not  believe  in  creeds,  expresses  a 
creed  by  that  saying.  "  I  do  not  believe  in  creeds  " 
is  his  creed.  Whoever  thinks  on  any  subject  to  a 
purpose  and  with  a  result  has  a  creed,  for  the  result 
is  his  creed.  If  he  thinks  on  politics  and  is  a  free- 
trader, free-trade  is  his  creed  ;  if  on  sociology  and 

^  Henry  Ward  Beecher :  Quoted  in  Biography  by  Mrs.  Beecher 
et  al.,  p.  269 ;  in  Biography  by  Lyman  Abbott,  pp.  193,  194. 


122  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

is  an  individualist,  individualism  is  his  creed ;  if  he 
thinks  to  any  purpose  on  religion,  the  result  of  that 
thinking  is  his  creed,  "  Religion  is  a  weakness  which 
a  man  must  outgrow  on  attaining  maturity  "  is  the 
creed  of  David  Friedrich  Strauss.^  This  is  as  truly 
a  creed  as  is  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith 
or  the  Thirty-nine  Articles. 

But  though  creeds  are  important  and  are  a  ne- 
cessary result  of  serious  thinking,  they  are  not  life. 
Theology  is  important,  but  it  is  not  religion.  Astro- 
nomy is  what  men  think  about  stars,  but  astronomy 
is  not  stars  ;  botany  is  what  men  think  about  flowers, 
but  botany  is  not  flowers  ;  so  theology  is  what  men 
think  about  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  but 
theology  is  not  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man, 
and  it  cannot  take  the  place  of  that  life. 

Men  come  to  church  for  religion:  that  is,  for 
life.  To  be  more  specific,  they  come  for  the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit :  for  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering, 
gentleness,  serviceableness,  fidelity,  meekness,  self- 
control.  When  they  get  only  theology,  that  is, 
only  what  philosophers  have  thought  about  this 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  cause  which  produces 
it,  and  the  methods  of  its  development,  and  the 
consequences  of  lacking  it,  they  go  away  dissatisfied. 
To-morrow  morning  the  reader  will  go  down  to 
breakfast  and  will  expect  his  roUs  and  coffee;  if 
instead  of  rolls  and  coffee  his  wife  should  read  him 
a  lecture  on  hygiene,  he  would  go  away  dissatisfied ; 
1  See  ante,  p.  35. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    123 

and  if  that  should  happen  often,  he  would  go  some- 
where else  for  breakfast.  It  is  quite  important  that 
the  housewife  should  understand  the  principles  of 
hygiene  in  order  that  she  may  know  how  to  prepare 
breakfast ;  but  what  we  want  is  breakfast,  not  a 
lecture  on  hygiene.  So  what  men  and  women  go  to 
church  for  is  religion,  not  a  lecture  about  religion ; 
and  when  they  go  to  church  and  get,  not  religion, 
but  a  philosophy  about  religion,  they  stop  going. 
It  is  not  strange. 

Next  Sunday  morning  a  man  comes  to  church. 
He  is  dissatisfied  with  himself.  He  has  wasted  his 
time ;  he  has  been  mean  in  business ;  he  has  been 
cross  with  his  wife ;  he  has  been  tyrannical  with 
his  children ;  he  is  half  conscious  of  it,  and  is  dis- 
contented with  himself.  Perhaps  his  feelings  are 
deeper.  Perhaps  he  looks  back  on  a  life  that  has 
been  thrown  away;  perhaps  he  has  deep  within 
himself  the  feeling  that  he  dares  not  meet  his  God, 
and  dares  not  face  the  future,  and,  so  feeling,  goes 
to  church.  The  preacher  announces  his  text  and 
proceeds  to  give  him  a  lecture  on  the  atonement. 
He  explains  to  him  that  there  is  a  theory  of  the 
atonement  that  Christ  died  to  satisfy  the  wrath  of 
God ;  a  theory  that  Christ  died  to  satisfy  the  law 
of  God;  a  theory  that  Christ  died  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  certain  impression  on  the  human  mind ;  a 
theory  that  Christ  died  in  order  to  impart  the  life 
of  God  to  man ;  and  then,  at  the  end,  the  preacher, 
in  order  to  make  it  soimd  like  a  sermon,  closes  with 


124  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  exhortation,  "Accept  Christ  and  be  saved;" 
and  the  man  goes  away  unsatisfied.  He  goes  to  an- 
other church,  and  another  preacher  takes  the  same 
text  and  preaches  also  on  the  atonement.  But  he 
has  before  him  this  aching,  hungering,  needy  heart, 
and  he  says  to  his  congregation : 

"  When  you  hear  these  words,  '  Prepare  to  meet 
your  God,'  are  you  afraid  to  meet  him  ?  I  teU  you 
that  Christ  has  died,  and  whatever  wrath  there  is 
in  God  against  sin  is  met  and  answered,  and  God's 
love  is  offered  to  you.  Do  you  say,  '  God  may  for- 
give me,  but  I  cannot  forgive  myself ;  his  law  rises 
up  against  me ;  and  my  own  conscience  condemns 
me  ? '  I  tell  you  that  his  law  is  satisfied,  and  his 
Son,  your  Saviour,  has  come  to  bring  you  peace. 
Do  you  say,  'I  do  not  repent;  I  cannot  repent; 
nothing  that  I  have  done  to  another  or  to  myself 
moves  me  ? '  I  teU  you  Christ  died  for  you.  I  put 
before  you  his  bleeding  hands  and  feet  and  pierced 
heart  that  you  may  know  what  God's  love  is,  that 
God's  love  may  move  you.  Do  you  say,  '  I  cannot 
arise ;  I  cannot  feel ;  I  am  dead  ? '  I  tell  you  that 
the  crucified  Christ  stands  at  the  door  of  the  grave 
and  says,  '  Lazarus,  come  forth ! '  I  teU  you  that 
God  loves  us  and  raises  us  up  even  when  we  are 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  Arise,  begin  a  new  life, 
for  you  are  a  new  man  if  you  choose  to  be  a  new 
man."  One  has  delivered  a  lecture,  the  other  has 
preached  a  sermon.  One  has  given  his  congrega- 
tion theology,  the  other  has  given  them  religion. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    125 

Or  perhaps  it  is  a  mother  who  has  come  to 
the  church.  She  has  had  a  hard  week  and  is  tired 
out.  The  children  have  been  cross,  the  husband 
has  been  impatient,  or  indifferent  and  unloving; 
the  cook  has  left  without  notice ;  everything  has 
gone  wrong.  The  wearied  wife  thinks  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  trying  to  live  any  longer.  She  ques- 
tions whether  she  will  go  to  church,  whether  she 
would  not  better  stay  at  home  and  read  a  book. 
But  habit  is  strong  upon  her,  and  she  goes.  The 
minister  takes  for  his  text,  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort 
ye,  my  people,  saith  your  God."  ^  "  Now,"  she 
says,  "  I  am  going  to  get  a  sermon  of  comfort." 
The  minister  proceeds  to  give  her  a  lecture  on  the 
Higher  Criticism.  He  says  :  "  It  used  to  be  thought 
that  there  was  but  one  Isaiah ;  but  there  are  two 
Isaiahs  —  at  least  two,  perhaps  a  score,  and  I  am 
going  to  prove  it  to  you."  And  then  he  puts  on  his 
boxing-gloves  and  begins  to  attack  the  old  tradi- 
tions. There  are  always  a  few  people  in  every  con- 
gregation who  admire  the  courage  of  such  a  man, 
though  it  really  does  not  require  much  courage  to 
conduct  a  boxing-match  with  a  stuffed  dummy. 
Others  —  a  few  —  wonder  at  the  learning,  saying, 
"  What  a  scholarly  minister  we  have  got !  "  But 
the  poor  mother  goes  back  to  her  home  and  says 
(that  is,  she  would  say  it  if  she  dared,  even  to  her- 
self), "  I  really  would  have  done  better  had  I  stayed 
at  home  and  read  a  good  story."    And  so  far  as 

^  Isaiah  xl,  1. 


126  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  sermon  is  concerned  she  is  right ;  she  would 
have  done  better. 

On  the  other  hand,  another  minister,  who  be- 
lieves that  there  are  two  Isaiahs,  preaches  on  this 
same  text.  He  says  nothing  about  two  Isaiahs,  but 
he  uses  his  conviction  that  the  second  Isaiah  lived 
toward  the  close  of  the  exile.    He  says  : 

"This  people  Israel  had  sinned  against  God; 
their  life  had  gone  awry;  they  had  been  carried 
away  from  their  homes;  they  had  spent  seventy 
years  in  exile ;  they  were  discouraged ;  they  be- 
lieved God  had  deserted  them,  that  he  had  for- 
gotten them,  that  he  cared  no  more  for  them.  Then 
came  this  message  to  the  prophet,  '  Comfort  ye, 
comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your  God;  ye  have 
received  double  for  all  your  sins.*  Even  the  prophet 
could  not  believe  the  words,  and  he  said,  '  What 
kind  of  a  message  can  I  bring  to  thy  people  ?  They 
are  but  grass.  They  are  perishing.'  And  the  an- 
swer came  back  to  him,  '  Though  they  are  but  grass 
and  perish,  the  word  of  God  endureth  for  ever. 
Take  comfort  and  be  strong.' "  ^  Then,  with  this 
mother  in  his  mind,  and  with  similar  weary,  worn, 
discouraged  hearts  in  his  mind,  the  minister  says : 
"  You  think  there  is  no  God.  Have  you  more  reason 
to  think  that  there  is  no  God  than  had  Judea  in 
exile  ?  You  are  discouraged.  Have  you  more  reason 
to  be  discouraged  than  they  had  ?  You  have  sinned 
and  think  that  you  are  suffering  the  punishment 

1  Isaiah  zl,  1  ff . 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    127 

for  your  sins,  and  tliat  there  is  no  help  for  you. 
Have  you  more  reason  to  think  that  there  is  no 
help  for  you  than  they  had  ?  Have  you  sinned  more 
than  Judah  had  sinned?  To  you,  in  your  loneli- 
ness, your  discouragement,  your  remorse,  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Gospel  is,  'Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye 
my  people,  saith  your  God.' "  And  the  minister 
brings  comfort  to  this  mother,  and  sends  her  back 
with  new  hope  in  her  heart,  and  she  will  come  next 
Sunday.  The  one  preacher  has  lectured  on  the 
Higher  Criticism,  the  other  has  used  it. 

What  I  have  said  here  respecting  the  difference 
between  religion  and  theology,  and  the  demand  of 
congregations  for  religion  rather  than  for  the- 
ology, I  said  some  years  ago  in  an  address  delivered 
to  a  ministerial  gathering  in  New  England.  The 
address  was  published  in  "  The  Outlook,"  and  it 
brought  to  me  from  a  correspondent  the  following 
letter : 

I  should  like  to  ask  one  question :  Do  you  not  think 
that  with  the  burdened  man  and  the  grieving  woman 
there  comes  also  to  church  the  person  whose  difficulties 
are  intellectual,  who  doubts,  to  whom  the  old  orthodoxy 
has  almost  closed  the  way  of  faith,  and  who  needs,  who 
hungers  for,  an  exposition  of  truth  almost  theological  ? 
I  can  conceive  such  a  one  enlightened,  brought  to  the 
Cross  indeed,  by  a  discussion  of  the  theories  of  the 
Atonement  in  which  difficulties  and  misconceptions  were 
removed.  Of  course,  what  such  a  person  needs  is  the 
fact  of  an  atonement  rather  than  the  theory  explaining 
it ;  but  to  explode  some  of  the  theories  might  open  the 


128  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

way  to  the  fact,  the  reality.  Your  own  preaching,  it  seems 
to  me,  has  been  peculiarly  to  the  class  who  have  been 
led  to  a  larger  religion  through  a  simpler  and  truer 
theology.! 

The  answer  to  this  letter  is  twofold.  First,  the 
minister  may  sometimes  be  simply  a  teacher.  He 
may  give  lectures  in  place  of  sermons.  He  may  tell 
his  congregation  in  a  series  of  lectures  what  is  the 
New  Theology,  or  what  is  the  New  Criticism,  or 
what  is  the  New  Sociology.  This  is  often  an  ad- 
vantageous thing  to  do ;  but  he  should  understand 
clearly  the  difference  between  teaching  and  preach- 
ing, between  a  lecture  and  a  sermon.  It  is  also  true 
that  it  is  one  function  of  the  preacher,  in  and  through 
his  sermon,  to  correct  misapprehensions  and  remove 
intellectual  difficulties ;  but  he  should  never  forget 
that  his  object  in  preaching  should  be  to  remove 
those  intellectual  difficulties  which  prevent  the  de- 
velopment of  the  spiritual  life,  and  because  they 
prevent  the  development  of  the  spiritual  life ;  that 
his  aim  must  always  be,  not  the  elucidation  of  the- 
ology, but  the  impartation  of  life.  The  world  is 
not  saved  by  theology,  either  old  or  new ;  it  is  saved 
by  the  life  of  God  imparted  to  the  soul  of  man. 
There  is,  as  Martineau  has  said,  plenty  of  scope  for 
the  young  prophet  who  will  bring  into  his  mission 
the  rationality  and  veracity  of  modem  thought, 
provided  it  is  accompanied  with  the  faith  and  fer- 
vor which  accompanied  the  ancient  thought.  But 
1  The  Outlook,  December  9, 1899. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    129 

rationality  and  veracity  of  modem  thought  are 
powerless  to  do  the  work  of  the  ministry  unless 
they  are  vitalized  by  and  made  a  vehicle  for  a 
simple  faith  and  fi  sincere  fervor. 

To  sum  this  chapter  up  in  a  paragraph :  The 
minister  is  sometimes  an  interpreter  of  current 
events,  but  he  is  more  than  a  journalist ;  his  sermons 
should  be  literature,  but  he  is  more  than  an  author ; 
he  is  an  instructor  in  truth,  but  he  is  more  than  a 
teacher ;  he  seeks  the  regeneration  of  society,  but 
he  is  more  than  a  moral  reformer ;  he  is  a  teacher 
of  the  truth  about  God,  but  he  is  more  than  a 
teacher  of  theology.  He  is  a  minister  of  religion, 
that  is,  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  The 
spiritual  hunger  of  humanity  is  well  expressed  in 
the  words  of  the  General  Confession  :  "  We  have 
left  undone  those  things  which  we  ought  to  have 
done;  and  we  have  done  those  things  which  we 
ought  not  to  have  done  ;  and  there  is  no  health  in 
us.  But  Thou,  O  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  mis- 
erable offenders.  Spare  Thou  those,  O  God,  who 
confess  their  faults.  Restore  Thou  those  who  are 
penitent ;  according  to  Thy  promises  declared  unto 
mankind,  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  And  grant, 
O  most  merciful  Father,  for  His  sake,  that  we  may 
hereafter  live  a  godly,  righteous,  and  sober  life,  to 
the  glory  of  Thy  holy  name."  ^ 

The  message  of  the  Christian  minister  is  the 
answer  of  the  Gospel  to  this  "  cry  of  the  human." 

1  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


130  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

It  is  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  woman  that 
was  a  sinner,  "  Thy  sins  are  forgiven ;  "  it  is  the 
message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  fishermen,  "  Follow 
me  ;  "  it  is  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  his  dis- 
ciples bereft  of  his  presence  for  a  second  time  by 
the  Ascension,  "  Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you."  It  is  the  three- 
fold message  of  pardon  for  the  past,  guidance  for 
the  future,  and  power  to  achieve.  The  mission  of 
the  Christian  minister  is  interpreted  for  him  by  his 
Master*s  commission,  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make 
disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I 
have  commanded  you."  ^  He  is  to  bring  men  into 
living  connection  with  the  living  God ;  he  is  to  in- 
spire them  with  the  purpose  to  possess  the  spirit 
and  f oUow  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ ;  he  is  to 
teach  them  what  following  Christ  in  this  twentieth 
century  involves.  The  mission  of  the  minister  is 
interpreted  for  him  by  the  words  of  the  Apostle 
Paul :  "  And  he  gave  some  as  apostles,  and  some 
as  prophets,  and  some  as  evangelists,  and  some  as 
pastors  and  teachers,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  holy 
in  the  work  of  service  to  the  building  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ,  until  we  all  come  unto  the  unity  of 
the  faith  and  of  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Son 
of  God  unto  a  perfect  manhood,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ." 

1  Matt,  xacviii,  19,  20.  «  Eph.  iv,  11-13. 


INDIVIDUAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    131 

His  work  is  first  to  bring  individuals  into  Christ- 
likeness  of  character  by  imparting  to  them  new- 
ness of  life.  It  is  also  to  transform,  through  the 
unity  of  faith,  a  heterogeneous  society  into  a  king- 
dom of  Christ.  It  is  both  individual  and  social. 
The  consideration  of  this  social  function  of  the 
Christian  minister,  and  what  it  demands  of  him  in 
our  time,  is  the  subject  of  our  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

The  theme  of  Christ's  preaching  was  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  or  the  kingdom  of  God.  Matthew 
sums  up  the  first  preaching  in  this  sentence :  "  From 
that  time  Jesus  began  to  preach,  and  to  say,  Repent : 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  Luke  tells 
us  that  he  defined  thus  his  mission :  "  I  must  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities  also :  for  there- 
fore am  I  sent."  When  the  disciples  were  ready 
for  their  mission,  this  was  the  message  which  he 
gave  to  them  :  "  As  ye  go  preach,  saying.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand."  His  disciples  were  told 
to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  wiU  be  done,  in 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  ^  A  comparison  of  the 
Scripture  texts,  especially  those  uttered  by  Jesus 
Christ  concerning  this  kingdom  of  God  or  of 
heaven,  makes  clear  certain  of  its  characteristics. 
This  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  It  is  one  which 
the  poor  in  spirit,  the  humble,  the  children  easily 
enter.  It  is  one  which  is  open  to  the  pagan  nations. 
They  wiU  come  from  afar  to  enter  it,  while  some  of 
the  children  of  Abraham  will  be  shut  out.  It  is  a 
kingdom  which  it  is  difficult  for  the  rich  to  enter, 
1  Matt,  iv,  17;  Luke  iv,  43;  Matt,  x,  7,  vi,  10. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    133 

and  impossible  for  the  self-satisfied  and  the  seK- 
righteous  to  enter.  It  is  growing  up  on  the  earth ; 
it  is  like  a  seed  planted  and  growing  secretly,  men 
know  not  how.  It  grows  from  little  beginnings  to 
a  great  consummation.  It  grows  under  difficulty, 
and  its  growth  depends  upon  circumstances.  Some- 
times it  grows  rapidly,  sometimes  slowly ;  sometimes 
it  grows  a  little  while,  and  then  fails  and  falls  back 
again.  Other  things  grow  as  well  as  the  kingdom 
of  God,  evil  as  weU  as  good,  tares  as  weU  as  wheat. 
It  is  like  a  feast ;  the  rich,  the  noble,  the  aristo- 
cratic, the  educated,  the  cultivated  are  invited,  and 
they  make  excuses ;  one  is  too  much  occupied  with 
his  business,  another  with  his  property,  another  with 
domestic  affairs ;  then  the  highways  and  hedges  are 
searched  for  the  poor,  the  lame,  the  halt.  But  to 
all  the  message  is  the  same.  The  table  is  set ;  all 
things  are  ready.  Come!  The  kingdom  is  here; 
you  have  not  to  wait.i 

And  yet,  though  it  grows  up  here,  and  is  here, 
and  the  message  given  to  the  disciples  is  to  tell  men 
that  it  is  here,  men  cannot  see  it.  They  cannot  say 
of  it :  "  Lo  here,  or  lo  there !  "  It  is  invisible.  In 
order  to  see  it  a  man  must  be  bom  from  above. 
Men  cannot  see  it  unless  a  new  power  of  vision  is 
given  to  them.  It  is  not  ostensible ;  it  is  not  pal- 
pable.   It  is  earthly,  because  it  is  on  the  earth,  and 

1  Matt,  iv,  17,  V,  3,  xviii,  4 ;  Luke  xiii,  28,  29 ;  Matt,  xix,  24, 
amii,  13;  Mark  iv,  26,  27 ;  Matt,  xiii,  31,  32,  3-9,  24-30,  47-50; 
Luke  xiv,  13-24;  Mark  ix,  1. 


134  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

yet  it  is  celestial,  because  it  is  spiritual.  It  is  human, 
because  it  is  made  up  of  men ;  it  is  divine,  because 
it  is  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  when  the  consum- 
mation of  human  history  is  accomplished,  the  con- 
summation will  be  written  in  this  sentence  :  "  The 
kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord,  and  of  his  Christ."  The  kingdoms  of 
this  world  —  still  world  kingdoms,  the  politics  still 
human  politics,  the  rule  stiU  human  rule,  and  yet 
transformed  so  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
themselves  are  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of 
his  Christ.  But  we  are  not  to  wait  until  the  drama 
is  over ;  we  are  not  to  wait  for  the  kingdom  of  God 
to  be  seen  in  the  celestial  city ;  the  new  Jerusalem 
is  now  coming  down  out  of  heaven  to  be  among 
men.  We  are  to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy 
will  be  done,  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  The 
ideal  is  celestial,  the  realization  earthly;  the  sub- 
ject, men  ;  the  centre  and  source  and  power,  divine.^ 
There  have  been  in  the  post-apostolic  Church 
three  conceptions  respecting  this  kingdom  of  God 
and  its  coming  on  the  earth.  There  has  been,  first, 
the  notion  that  it  would  come  with  some  great  cata- 
clysm, some  great  spiritual  and  supernatural  revo- 
lution. So  the  Jews  expected  a  kingdom  that  should 
come  with  blare  of  trumpets  and  waving  of  flags. 
So,  apparently,  the  primitive  Church  expected  it, 
thinking  that  the  risen  Christ  would  come  back  in 
coronation  glory  to  establish  it.  As  Christ  did  not 
1  Luke  xTii,  21 ;  John  iii,  3 ;  Rey.  xi,  15,  xxi,  2 ;  Matt,  vi,  10. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   135 

come  in  coronation  glory  to  establisli  the  kingdom, 
there  arose  the  conception  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
was  the  Church,  and  the  Church  the  kingdom ;  the 
King  was  absent;,  but  he  had  appointed  a  vicar  to 
take  his  place,  and  this  vicar  of  God,  this  Pope  of 
Rome,  stood  in  the  lieu  of  God,  and  this  Church 
ruled  over  by  him  was  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
men  that  were  baptized  entered  into  that  kingdom 
through  their  baptism.  Men  could  then  point  at 
the  cathedral  and  at  the  mass  and  at  the  priest- 
hood, and  say :  "  Lo  here,  lo  there  ;  behold  the  king- 
dom of  God ! "  The  Church  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  were  identified.  As  the  Church  disappointed 
men,  there  arose  a  third  conception,  that  the  king- 
dom was  not  to  come  on  earth  at  aU.  It  was  celes- 
tial, not  terrestrial,  and  the  earth  was  only  a  place 
of  trial  by  which  men  worthy  of  the  kingdom  were 
selected,  or  a  place  of  preparation  by  which  men 
worthy  of  the  kingdom  were  prepared  for  it.  Men 
still  continued  to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy 
wiU  be  done,  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven ;  "  but  they 
no  longer  had  the  faith  that  it  would  or  could  come 
on  earth.  They  still  read  such  declarations  as, "  This 
is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our 
faith,"  1  and  such  interpretations  of  that  declaration 
as  the  prophecy,  "  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord,  and  of  his  Christ," 
but  they  no  longer  believed  these  prophecies.  They 
regarded  faith  as  an  experience  by  which  they  could 

*  1  John  V,  4. 


136  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

escape  from  the  world,  not  as  a  power  by  which  they 
could  conquer  it ;  and  the  future  as  having  in  it  the 
destruction  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  not  their 
transformation  into  a  kingdom  of  God  in  which  his 
will  would  be  done  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

In  our  time  we  are  returning  to  the  apostolic 
conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  —  that  it  is  to 
come  by  the  spirit  of  Christ  gradually  pervading  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world,  and  so  gradually  transform- 
ing them.  This  was  Christ's  conception  :  the  king- 
dom is  like  leaven  entering  and  pervading  the  whole 
lump.  It  was  Paul's  conception :  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  holiness 
of  spirit.  It  was  John's  conception  :  he  saw  "  the 
new  Jerusalem  coming  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven "  to  be  "  the  tabernacle  of  God  among 
men."  ^  The  minister,  if  he  foUows  his  Master, 
accepts  his  Master's  commission,  and  endeavors  to 
carry  on  toward  its  completion  his  Master's  mis- 
sion, is  not  merely  to  be  a  preacher  of  glad  tidings 
to  individuals.  He  is  not  merely  to  be  an  evan- 
gelist to  solitary  pilgrims,  bidding  them  flee  from 
the  City  of  Destruction.  He  is  to  be  the  herald  of 
a  new  social  order ;  he  is  to  aim  at  nothing  less 
than  making  a  celestial  city  out  of  the  City  of  De- 
struction ;  he  is  to  be  the  inbringer  and  the  up- 
builder  of  a  new  earth  wherein  dwells  righteousness. 

The  message  of  the  ministry,  as  it  is  interpreted 
by  the  Evangelical  faith,  has  foimd  expression  in 
1  Rev.  xxi,  3. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   137 

five  pregnant  words  :  revelation,  redemption,  regen- 
eration, atonement,  and  sacrifice.  These  five  words 
have  their  personal  meaning  as  applied  to  the  indi- 
vidual. On  that  meaning  in  the  past,  perhaps  not 
too  great,  but  certainly  too  exclusive  stress  has 
been  laid.  For  they  aU  have  a  corporate  or  social 
meaning,  and  this  corporate  or  social  meaning  the 
minister  must  grasp  if  he  would  fulfill  the  mission 
which  he  has  accepted,  and  for  the  fulfillment  of 
which  no  age  has  ever  offered  such  opportunities 
as  the  present. 

I.  Revelation  is  a  personal  word;  a  revelation 
of  God  through  individual  men  to  individual  men  ; 
the  unveiling  of  God  through  Moses  and  David 
and  Isaiah  and  Paul  to  the  individual  reader  of 
the  Bible,  and  to  each  individual  according  to  his 
spiritual  capacity.  But  this  is  not  all,  it  is  not  even 
chiefly  what  revelation  means. 

Says  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  Harris  of  Yale  Theo- 
logical Seminary  :  "  The  Bible  is  not  a  collection 
of  truths  formulated  in  propositions,  which  God 
from  time  to  time  whispered  in  the  ear  to  be  com- 
municated to  the  world  as  the  unchanging  formulas 
of  thought  and  life  for  all  time."  Revelation  is 
"  God's  majestic  march  through  history,  redeeming 
man  from  sin."  ^  "  Arise,  shine,"  cries  Isaiah  to 
Israel ;  "  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  is  risen  upon  thee."  ^   Israel  itself  is  to  be  a 

1  Samuel  Harris :  The  Sdf-Bevelation  of  God,  xxx,  468, 459. 

2  Isaiah  Ix,  1. 


138  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

revelation  to  the  world  ;  because  in  Israel  God  is  to 
dwell,  therefore  through  Israel  God  is  to  be  re- 
vealed. The  Bible  is  what  it  has  weU  been  called, 
*'  the  message  of  Israel."  Our  prejudice  against  the 
Jewish  people  is  as  unnatural  as  it  is  unchristian ; 
for  they  held  that  religion  which  we  revere,  while 
yet  it  was  a  bud,  before  it  had  blossomed  out  into 
Christianity.  To  them  we  are  indebted  for  the  faith 
that  there  is  one  God  ;  that  he  is  a  righteous  God 
and  demands  righteousness  from  his  children,  and 
demands  nothing  else ;  and  that  he  will  help  them 
to  attain  righteousness  if  they  wiU  accept  his  help. 
Out  from  the  Jewish  nation  shines  this  first  begin- 
ning of  the  light  that  is  to  illuminate  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  But  God  has  not  stopped  his  majestic 
march.  He  did  not  cease  to  walk  in  human  history 
when  the  canon  was  closed.  He  has  been  majesti- 
cally marching  through  all  the  centuries.  It  is  not 
to  Israel  only  that  he  has  said,  "  Arise,  shine ;  "  he 
no  less  emphatically  says  it  to  America.  And  it  is  no 
less  the  duty  of  the  modern  prophet  to  interpret 
this  message  to  the  thought  and  to  the  conscience 
of  the  American  people.  The  function  of  the 
Christian  ministry  is  not  merely  to  make  individ- 
uals luminous  by  inspiring  in  them  the  life  of  Christ ; 
it  is  not  merely  to  make  the  Church  luminous  by 
gathering  into  it  the  Christian  light-bearers ;  it  is 
to  make  the  nation  a  light-bearer  to  all  the  nations 
of  the  world. 

Our  history  gives  us  some  illustration  of  this 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   139 

truth,  because  it  records  some  fulfillment  of  this 
duty  by  the  nation.  We  have  opened  the  gates 
which  Isaiah  said  should  not  be  closed.  We  have 
called  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  to  share 
with  us  in  our  inheritance,  and  they  have  come  to 
us,  —  all  races,  all  classes,  all  conditions,  —  and  we 
have  borne,  by  our  treatment  of  the  foreigner  on 
this  shore,  a  witness  to  the  brotherhood  of  man 
such  as  no  nation  ever  before  has  borne  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  Slavery  was  fastened  upon  us. 
It  grew  with  our  growth,  and  strengthened  with 
our  strength ;  but  when  at  last  it  threatened  the 
life  of  the  nation,  the  nation  armed  itseK,  not  simply 
for  union,  —  though  it  took  much  money  and  much 
blood  to  learn  the  lesson  God  had  to  teach  us,  — 
but  for  liberty  as  well ;  and  when  the  four  years  of 
agony  were  over,  we  had  borne  a  witness  to  brother- 
hood in  tones  which  had  echoed  around  the  globe. 
Our  foreign  policy  also  affords  an  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which  a  nation  may  be  made  a  revelation 
of  God,  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles.  When  the 
Boxer  movement  took  possession  of  the  Chinese 
people,  as  of  old  the  demon  took  possession  of  the 
unhappy  boy  and  cast  him  into  the  fire  and  into 
the  waters  to  destroy  him,  America  was  the  one 
nation  that  insisted  upon  recognizing  the  reality  of 
the  Chinese  nationality  and  appealing  to  the  con- 
science of  the  Chinese  people ;  the  one  nation  whose 
guns  were  not  trained  against  that  Chinese  fort, 
and  whose  soldiers,  when  the  ministers  had  been 


140  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

released,  took  no  share  in  the  looting,  plundering, 
and  devastating  expeditions  that  were  miscalled 
punitive.  The  Chinese  received  from  the  fires  that 
Eussia  and  Germany  and  France  lighted  a  revela- 
tion concerning  so-called  Christianity  which  it  will 
take  centuries  to  erase  from  their  minds.  They 
have  received  from  our  flag  a  revelation  of  Chris- 
tianity of  which,  on  the  whole,  we  need  not  be 
ashamed. 

But  the  end  has  not  been  reached.  So  long  as 
in  our  country  there  remain  prejudices  to  separate 
Jew  and  Christian,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
foreigner  and  native  American,  African  and  Anglo- 
Saxon,  so  long  there  will  remain  need  of  prophets 
to  teach  that  One  is  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven, 
and  that  we  are  aU  brethren.  So  long  as  there  are 
selfish  men  eager  to  appropriate  the  wealth  of  the 
subject  peoples  who  have  fallen  into  our  keeping, 
and  indifferent  men,  desirous  to  leave  them  to 
themselves,  either  because  they  are  unwilling  to 
endure  what  taking  up  the  white  man*s  burden 
imposes  on  the  nation,  or  because  they  distrust  the 
capacity  of  the  nation  to  enter  on  new  and  untried 
duties  toward  an  undeveloped  people,  so  long  will 
there  be  need  of  Christian  prophets  to  bear  witness 
to  the  nation  that  we  are  debtor  to  the  poor  and 
ignorant  of  all  lands,  and  especially  of  those  to 
whom  God's  providence  has  appointed  us  as  guar- 
dians, that  by  our  justice,  our  loyalty  to  liberty, 
our  faith  in  God  and  in  man  as  God's  child,  we 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    141 


may  develop  a  human  brotherhood  in  Porto  Rico, 
Hawaii,  and  the  Philippines.  The  nation  itself  is 
to  be  a  revelation  of  Christianity  to  other  peoples 
and  it  is  the  function  of  the  Christian  ministry  to 
lay  that  duty  on  the  American  people,  to  inspire 
them  with  courage  to  undertake  it,  and  to  indicate 
the  principles  by  which  they  are  to  be  guided  in  so 
great  an  undertaking. 

II.  Redemption  has  a  personal  meaning.  It  is 
the  saving  of  the  individual  life  from  self-destruc- 
tion by  sin.  But  redemption  is  more  than  personal ; 
it  is  organic,  it  is  corporate.  Christ  is  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  not 
some  sins  from  some  men  in  the  world.  God  is 
majestically  marching  through  history,  redeeming 
not  elect  individuals  merely,  but  redeeming  the 
world.  Christ  does  not  come  as  an  angel  or  mes- 
senger might  come  to  the  imprisoned  French  in  the 
Conciergerie  in  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  to  call 
out  one  or  another  from  the  fateful  guillotine  ;  he 
comes  to  destroy  the  guillotine,  and  establish  law 
and  order  and  peace  where  before  was  anarchy  and 
ruin. 

History  is  the  interpreter  of  God's  redeeming 
work,  and  what  does  history  tell  us  ?  When  Paul 
wrote  to  the  Romans,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the 
glad  tidings  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation,"  ^  government  was  an  absolute  des- 
potism ;  labor  was  wholly  servile ;  the  family  was 
1  Rom.  i,  16. 


'] 


142  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

a  commercial  partnership  wliicli  might  be  dissolved 
by  either  husband  or  wife  at  any  time ;  there  were 
no  schools  for  the  education  of  the  people;  and 
the  pagan  religion  did  not  even  pretend  to  try  to 
make  men  better,  —  it  devoted  itself  to  appeasing 
the  wrath  of  angry  gods  or  bribing  the  favor  of 
corruptible  ones.  For  nineteen  centuries  Christ  has 
been  majestically  marching  through  the  world,  and 
wherever  he  has  gone,  governments  have  ceased  to 
be  the  Old  World  despotisms  they  once  were ;  the 
shackles  have  dropped  from  the  wrists  of  the  slave ; 
the  commercial  conception  of  marriage  has  disap- 
peared, though  relics  of  the  ancient  paganism  from 
which  the  world  is  emerging  still  appear  in  too 
many  of  our  States ;  the  public  school  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  people  has  been  first  planted  by  the 
Church  and  then  taken  up  and  carried  on  by  the 
State ;  and  religion  has  become  an  instrument  for 
the  making  of  men,  and  its  ministers  and  priests 
are  endeavoring  to  bring  to  the  people  a  message 
that  will  make  them  happier,  wiser,  better,  more 
worthy  to  be  called  Christ's  men. 

We  are  not  as  a  Christian  Church  simply  to 
redeem  individuals;  we  are  to  carry  on  the  work 
which  Christ  has  been  carrying  on  through  the 
centuries,  —  a  work  of  world  redemption.  In  the 
old  slave  days  single  slaves  occasionally  broke 
away  from  slavery,  crossed  the  Oliio  River,  and 
were  aided  by  some  Abolitionist  to  escape  to 
Canada;  and  occasionally  some  preacher  of  right- 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    143 

eousness  gathered  money  from  his  congregation  to 
purchase  a  single  slave  girl  and  set  her  free.  But 
when  the  fuUness  of  time  came,  Abraham  Lincoln 
signed  the  proclamation  which  said  to  every  slave 
in  America,  "  You  are  free,"  and  changed  the  labor 
condition  of  one  half  the  nation.  Christ  has  come 
into  the  world  not  merely  to  aid  escaping  fugitives 
here  and  there  ;  he  has  come  to  say  to  aU  mankind, 
"  You  are  free ;  "  and  the  work  of  the  Church  is 
to  secure  and  complete  that  emancipation  here  and 
now,  on  this  globe. 

III.  Regeneration  is  individual.  Each  individ- 
ual soul  must  be  born  into  the  spiritual  life  as  each 
individual  soul  must  be  bom  into  the  earthly  life. 
But  regeneration  is  more  than  individual ;  it  is 
corporate,  it  is  social.  The  community,  in  its  indus- 
try, its  government,  its  social  order,  is  to  be  born 
from  above. 

Socialism  and  Christianity  are  alike  in  that  both    \ 
of  them  seek  a  new  social  order .^    They  are  unlike     ^ 
in  the  method  by  which  they  propose  to  secure  the 
new  social  order.    Socialism  attributes  what  is  evil     ' 
in  men  to  the  evil  system,  and  proposes  to  change 
the  system  that  it  may  change  the  spirit.    Chris- 
tianity attributes  what  is  evil  in  the  system  to  the 
evil  spirit  in  men,  and  proposes  to  change  the  spirit 
that  it  may  change  the  system. 

Let  me  illustrate.    Our  present  industrial  system 

^  I  use  the  somewhat  vague  word  socialism  here  in  its  more  re- 
stricted meaning,  as  equivalent  to  State  Socialism. 


144  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

may  be  briefly  described  thus :  The  farmer  gathers 
the  raw  material  from  the  earth ;  the  manufacturer 
converts  it  into  objects  which  are  useful  to  human 
life,  —  the  grain  into  flour,  the  wool  into  clothing ; 
the  railroad  man  takes  this  material,  which  is  of  no 
use  where  it  is,  and  carries  it  across  the  continent 
to  those  regions  where  it  is  needed,  from  the  over- 
fed West  to  the  underfed  cities  of  the  Atlantic 
border ;  the  middleman  takes  what  is  transported 
and  carries  it  to  our  houses ;  the  banker  regulates 
the  money  through  which  all  this  mysterious  and 
intricate  system  of  interchange  is  carried  on  ;  the 
lawyer  determines  for  us  what  are  the  principles  of 
justice  by  which  we  are  to  be  governed  in  our  deal- 
ings one  with  another  in  this  intricate  system ;  the 
doctor  cures  us  when  we  are  sick,  or,  if  we  are  wise 
and  he  is  wise  also,  keeps  us  from  getting  sick ;  the 
teacher  gathers  out  from  all  the  experience  of  the 
past  that  which  shall  launch  us  into  life  with  some- 
thing of  the  wisdom  acquired  by  our  forefathers ; 
and  the  preacher  seeks  to  give  the  life  and  love  of 
God  to  men  to  inspire  them  in  all  their  labor. 

Socialism  proposes  to  change  this  system.  It 
proposes  that  the  community  shall  constitute  one 
great  corporation,  in  which  every  individual  shall 
be  a  stockholder,  that  in  the  constitution  of  the 
corporation  aU  the  stockholders  shall  have  equal 
authority,  that  the  corporation  shall  own  all  the 
tools  and  implements  of  industry,  including  the 
land  and  all   instruments  of   transportation,  and 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   145 

that  it  shall  assign  to  every  man  his  task  according 
to  his  ability,  and  to  every  man  his  reward  accord- 
ing to  his  need.  Christianity  proposes  to  change  the 
spirit  and  motives  of  the  men  who  are  carrying  it 
on.  The  message  of  Christianity  might  be  epito- 
mized somewhat  as  follows  :  Permit  this  industrial 
system  to  go  on  upon  the  principle  that  every  man 
is  to  get  what  he  can  and  keep  what  he  gets ;  let 
competition  be  the  law  of  industry ;  let  tlie  farmer 
say,  "  I  will  see  how  much  I  can  get  for  my  grain," 
and  the  manufacturer  say,  "  I  will  see  how  much 
I  can  get  for  my  manufacturing,"  and  the  railroad 
man  say,  "  I  will  see  what  the  transportation  will 
bear,"  and  the  middleman  say,  "  I  wiU  take  all  the 
transporter  leaves  before  I  hand  anything  over  to 
the  private  individual,"  and  the  doctor  say,  "  I  will 
get  all  out  of  the  sick  man  that  he  thinks  his  life 
is  worth,"  and  the  lawyer  say,  "  I  will  not  leave 
this  estate  until  I  have  got  the  most  of  it  into  my 
pocket,"  and  the  teachers  combine  to  make  the 
school  subservient  to  their  interests,  and  the  preacher 
seek  the  parish  that  will  give  him  the  largest  salary 
and  the  least  work,  —  and  the  results  will  be  oppres- 
sion of  the  poor,  degradation  of  the  rich,  misery  of 
all.  And  if  this  spirit  of  selfishness  is  left  dominant 
in  men,  no  change  in  the  system  will  be  of  any  great 
benefit.  To  take  the  control  of  all  the  industries 
from  private  enterprise  and  give  them  all  to  the 
State  will  only  be  to  substitute  political  autocracy 
for  industrial  autocracy ;  it  wiU  abolish  Mr.  Car- 


146  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

negie  and  enthrone  Mr.  Croker.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, we  may  safely  leave  the  industrial  system 
unchanged  if  we  can  put  a  new  spirit  into  it.  Let 
the  farmer  say :  "  Thank  God,  I  live  in  a  time 
when  seven  men  can  feed  a  thousand,  and  I  will  see 
how  many  hungry  mouths  I  can  supply."  Let  the 
manufacturer  say  :  "  I  am  a  worker  together  with 
God,  for  I  also  am  a  creator ;  I  am  building  for 
the  world."  Let  the  railroad  man  say :  "  If  it  were 
not  for  me  the  East  would  be  famine-stricken ;  I  will 
make  haste  in  transporting  food  that  I  may  feed 
the  hungry."  Let  the  middleman  say :  "  What  can 
I  do  for  my  companions?  "  Let  the  employer  say : 
"  What  are  the  largest  wages  I  can  pay  my  work- 
ingmen  and  live?"  Let  the  workingman  say: 
"  What  is  the  best  service  I  can  render  and  stiU 
maintain  life  at  its  full  flood  tide  ?  "  Let  the  lawyer 
say :  "  I  am  a  minister  of  justice,  and  God  is  just." 
Let  the  doctor  say :  "  I  am  following  the  footsteps 
of  Christ,  who  healed  the  sick."  Let  the  minister 
say :  "  I  do  not  ask  for  an  easy  pulpit,  or  a  rich 
parish  ;  put  me  where  I  can  bring  life  to  the  hearts 
of  men."  Then  all  the  industrial  system  will  be  a 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  whatever  changes 
in  the  organism  are  necessary  will  f  oUow  as  of  course 
and  without  revolution. 

The  Christian  minister  need  not  —  I  have  indi- 
cated this  before  —  be  a  sociologist.  He  need  not 
be  an  expert  on  the  subject  of  business  methods. 
And  if  he  is  not  an  expert  he  had  better  not 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY   147 

attempt  to  discuss  those  methods  in  detail  before  a 
congregation  which  has  in  it  a  considerable  number 
of  experts.  He  need  not  be  able  to  draw  a  clear 
line  of  demarkation  between  legitimate  and  ille- 
gitimate competition,  to  teU  when  speculation  ceases 
to  be  speculation  and  becomes  gambling,  to  know 
himself  or  to  teach  others  what  are  the  legitimate 
rules  of  a  labor  union,  or  what  the  propriety  of 
an  employers'  association,  or  what  wages  the  em- 
ployer should  pay,  or  what  hours  the  employee 
should  be  willing  to  labor.  The  more  he  knows 
on  these  subjects  the  better,  provided  he  does  not 
think  a  little  knowledge  is  equivalent  to  full  know- 
ledge, or  forget  that  sometimes  a  little  knowledge 
is  a  dangerous  thing.  But  there  are  certain  funda- 
mental principles  of  social  order  which  Christ  has 
inculcated,  and  which  the  Christian  minister  ought 
to  understand,  and  he  ought  to  know  how  to  apply 
them  to  the  social  problems  of  his  own  time  and  his 
own  community.  They  are  such  as  the  dignity  of 
labor :  "  My  father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work ;  " 
the  measure  of  greatness  :  "  Whosoever  will  be  chief 
among  you  let  him  be  your  servant ; "  the  stand- 
ard of  values :  "  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat 
and  the  body  than  raiment ; "  the  method  of  set- 
tling controversies :  "  If  thy  brother  shall  trespass 
against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between 
thee  and  him  alone ;  if  he  shall  hear  thee,  then  thou 
hast  gained  thy  brother;  but  if  he  will  not  hear 
thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  in 


148  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word 
may  be  established :  "  that  is,  first  conciliation,  then 
arbitration. 1  For  the  office  of  the  Christian  minister 
is  not  merely  or  even  mainly  to  save  from  a  general 
wreck  a  few  elect  individuals,  transformed  by  the 
renewing  of  their  spirit  into  fitness  for  a  celestial 
state ;  it  is  to  do  his  part  in  preparing,  by  the  re- 
newing of  its  spirit,  a  kingdom  of  industry  on  the 
earth,  that  shall  be  a  kingdom  of  mutuality  of  ser- 
vice, of  the  ministry  of  things  to  life,  and  of  peace 
and  good-will. 

IV.  Atonement  is  individual  and  personal.  Each 
soul  must  be  brought  into  harmony  with  God.  But 
atonement  is  more  than  individual  and  personal; 
it  is  organic,  it  is  corporate.  In  that  unity  of  the 
individual  soul  with  God  is  the  secret  of  the  unity 
of  the  human  race  in  itself. 

"  God  was  in  Christ,"  says  Paul,  "  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself,"  ^  —  not  merely  individuals 
in  the  world  ;  and  because  he  was  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself,  he  was  reconciling  all  parts 
of  the  world  to  one  another.  The  secret  of  social 
imity  is  the  recognition  of  God's  fatherhood,  and 
of  Christ's  redeeming  work  in  the  world. 

There  is  a  brotherhood  which  depends  upon 
agreement  in  opinion.  The  Republicans  are  bro- 
thers, because  they  agree  upon  one  platform ;  the 
Congregationalists,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Episco- 

1  Matt,  vi,  25,  xviii,  16, 16,  xx,  27,  John  v,  17. 

2  2  Cor.  V,  19. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    149 

palians  are  each  a  brotherhood,  because  the  mem- 
bers of  these  denominations  hold  each  to  the  same 
creed.  But  the  brotherhood  that  Christ  spoke  of 
was  broader  than  an  intellectual  brotherhood,  for 
he  told  men  that  the  Good  Samaritan,  who  was  a 
heretic,  was  more  brother  to  the  man  who  fell 
among  thieves  than  the  priest  and  Levite,  who  were 
orthodox.  There  is  a  brotherhood  that  depends 
on  social  congeniality.  The  man  whose  tempera- 
ment agrees  with  my  temperament,  the  man  who 
thinks  not  only  as  I  think,  but  feels  as  I  feel, 
whose  tastes  and  inclinations  are  like  mine,  is  re- 
cognized as  my  brother.  But  the  brotherhood  of 
Christ  was  broader  than  that.  The  Pharisees  would 
never  have  found  fault  with  Christ  if  he  had  simply 
preached  to  the  publicans  and  sinners  ;  but  he  sat 
down  and  ate  with  them  ;  he  treated  them  as  bro- 
thers, and  that  the  Pharisees  could  not  understand. 
There  is  a  brotherhood  of  race.  In  vain  do  poli- 
ticians and  journals  cry  out  against  it.  Still,  it  re- 
mains true  that  Englishmen  will  recognize  in  us, 
and  we  should  recognize  in  Englishmen,  kin  across 
the  sea,  because  we  have  one  blood  pulsating  in 
our  veins.  But  the  brotherhood  of  Christ  was 
broader  than  the  brotherhood  of  blood  relation- 
ship. In  his  first  sermon  he  was  mobbed  because 
he  told  the  Jews  that  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman 
and  the  Syrian  man  were  children  of  the  same 
God  and  their  own  kin.i  Christ  has  told  us  what 
1  Luke  iv,  25-27. 


150  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

is  the  secret  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race ;  it  is 
that  we  are  all  the  offspring  of  God. 

Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi :  for  one  is  your  teacher,  and 
all  ye  are  brethren.  And  call  no  man  your  father  on 
the  earth :  for  one  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven. 
Neither  be  ye  called  masters  :  for  one  is  your  master, 
even  the  Christ.^ 

In  this  country  we  have  seen  the  peril  of  two 
great  chasms  that  seem  to  be  growing,  one  between 
the  black  race  and  the  white  race  in  the  South,  the 
other  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  in  the 
North,  —  the  race  rift  and  the  class  rift.  How  shall 
we  close  these  rifts  ?  How  shall  we  prevent  the 
evils  that  will  come  from  them?  We  have  tried 
the  experiment  of  universal  suffrage.  We  have 
said  that  we  would  give  the  ballot  to  all  men,  — 
black  and  white,  foreigner  and  native  American, 
— and  then  we  shall  have  a  brotherhood.  We  gave 
them  the  same  political  power,  but  this  did  not  give 
us  brotherhood.  We  tried  a  similar  method  of  deal- 
ing with  the  class  division.  We  have  said :  Let  every 
man  work  where  he  will,  for  what  wages  he  can 
get,  and  let  every  capitalist  employ  whom  he  wUl, 
for  as  low  wages  as  he  can  pay,  and  we  shall  have 
brotherhood.  What  has  happened  ?  The  capitalists 
have  organized,  and  the  trade  unions  have  organ- 
ized for  greater  success  in  their  conflicts  with  each 
other,  untn  the  peril  of  industrial  war  is  so  great 
that  both  sides  are  appalled  at  the  possible  danger, 
1  Matt,  xxiii,  8-10. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    151 

and  are  trying  to  see  if  they  can  adjust  their 
antagonisms  through  some  courts  of  arbitration. 
There  is  no  unity  for  the  human  race  outside  of 
these  two  faiths,  —  faith  in  God  as  the  Father 
of  humanity,  and  faith  in  redemption  as  the  end  of 
human  history.  It  is  the  business  of  the  Christian 
Church  to  bridge  the  chasm  between  black  and 
white,  between  native  American  and  foreigner, 
between  labor  and  capital,  not  by  a  new  form  or 
method  of  social,  political,  or  industrial  organiza- 
tion, but  by  infusing  into  the  hearts  of  men  this 
twofold  faith,  —  faith  in  the  fatherhood  of  God, 
and  faith  in  the  redeeming  work  to  be  carried  on 
by  his  children  on  the  earth. 

"  Our  Father  "  —  who  may  say  that  ?  Whoever 
needs  a  father ;  whoever  has  sorrows  that  are  call- 
ing for  comfort  or  sins  that  call  for  pardon.  And 
whoever,  having  sorrows  that  need  comfort,  or  sins 
that  need  pardon,  or  ignorance  that  needs  illumi- 
nation, or  weakness  that  needs  strengthening, 
kneels  and  says,  "  Our  Father,"  is  a  brother  to 
me,  though  he  may  kneel  to  a  crucifix,  though  he 
may  acknowledge  a  false  creed,  though  he  may  use 
poor  words,  though  he  may  not  understand  the  God 
he  addresses,  and  though  he  may  call  him  by  the 
wrong  name.  We  are  of  one  Father ;  therefore  we 
are  brethren. 

And  we  are  here  for  one  work  in  the  world ;  we 
are  here  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of  God,  not 
merely  to  save  men  from  the  kingdom  of  the  devil 


152  .  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and  to  prepare  them  for  tlie  kingdom  of  God  in  a 
future  life.  If  that  were  all,  then  laymen  could 
employ  ministers  to  do  this  work,  and  they  could 
go  on  with  their  secular  affairs.  But  that  is  not 
what  we  are  here  for.  "We  are  here  to  build  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Ministers  can  sketch  on  paper 
the  outline  of  the  edifice,  but  the  laymen  build  it. 
Ministers  often  fail  to  realize  this.  It  is  easier  to 
draw  a  picture  of  a  house  than  to  build  it  with 
brick  and  stone  and  mortar.  With  a  composing- 
stick  in  hand  and  the  type  before  you,  you  can 
pick  out  the  single  letters  and  speU  the  word 
"  brotherhood,"  and  print  it  and  send  it  out  into 
the  world.  It  is  only  a  moment's  work.  But  it  is 
a  very  difficult  task  for  the  head  of  a  factory,  with  a 
Pole,  an  Irishman,  an  African,  an  Hungarian,  and 
a  Russian  Jew  before  him  as  movable  type,  to  spell 
out  a  living  "  brotherhood."  Yet  that  is  what  the 
laymen  have  to  do,  —  out  of  these  very  elements 
to  make  a  human  brotherhood  that  is  itself  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth;  and  they  cannot 
do  it  save  as  we  in  the  Christian  ministry  make 
the  men  before  us  realize  that  they  are  in  the 
world  not  to  build  railroads  or  factories  or  steam- 
ship lines,  but,  through  factories  and  railroads  and 
steamship  lines,  to  redeem  the  world  here  and  now, 
and  make  a  human  brotherhood  out  of  these  het- 
erogeneous social  elements.  The  unity  of  the  race 
or  the  nation  can  come  only  from  unity  in  funda- 
mental faith,  —  the  recognition  of  "  Our  Father," 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    153 

—  and  unity  in  motive,  —  the  recognition  that  our 
work  in  the  world  is  the  world's  redemption.  The 
men  of  the  South  must  realize  that  their  work  is 
to  educate  and  elevate  the  African  race ;  the  edu- 
cated and  employing  class  in  the  North  must  real- 
ize that  their  work  is  to  educate  and  elevate  the 
uneducated  foreigners.  Only  in  this  realization  can 
there  be  a  true  at-one-ment,  —  a  unity  of  men  with 
one  another,  because  a  unity  of  men  with  Christ  in 
his  work. 

V.  Sacrifice  is  personal.  Christ  suffered  and  died 
once  for  all,  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  But 
sacrifice  is  also  generic  and  corporate  and  continu- 
ous. I  will  not  enter  here  into  the  debated  ques- 
tion whether  we  are  to  say  that  Christ  died  on  our 
behalf,  or  that  Christ  died  in  our  stead ;  but  his 
death  is  idle  for  us  unless  we  die  with  him,  and  his 
crucifixion  is  ineffective  for  us  unless  we  also  are 
crucified  with  him.  This  truth  is  written  throughout 
the  Gospels ;  it  is  written  throughout  the  Pauline 
writings.  The  Koman  Catholics  are  right  in  their 
statement  that  the  sacrifice  is  a  continuous  sacri- 
fice; they  are  wrong  in  thinking  that  this  con- 
tinuous sacrifice  is  or  can  be  offered  by  means  of 
consecrated  bread  and  wine  upon  the  altar.  It  is  a 
sacrifice  in  the  home,  in  the  store,  in  the  shop,  — 
a  sacrifice  day  by  day,  by  every  man  for  his  fellow 
men. 

There  are  two  conceptions  of  life.  One  is  that 
we  are  in  the  world  to  produce  a  type  of  humanity. 


154  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Hence  struggle  for  existence  and  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Therefore  let  the  strong  man  keep  his 
strength,  and  the  wealthy  man  his  wealth,  and  the 
great  man  his  greatness ;  the  quicker  the  weak  and 
the  poor  die,  the  quicker  the  end  will  be  reached 
and  the  type  will  be  attained.  The  other  concep- 
tion is  that  God  in  this  world  is  working  out,  not 
a  type  of  man,  — he  has  given  us  the  type  in  Jesus 
Christ,  —  but  a  race  of  men  that  are  to  conform 
to  that  type ;  and  the  only  way  the  race  can  be 
wrought  out  in  human  history  is  by  the  strong  bear- 
ing the  burdens  of  the  weak,  and  the  wise  bearing 
the  burdens  of  the  ignorant,  and  the  rich  bear- 
ing the  burdens  of  the  poor. 

The  first  conception  does  not  even  give  us  a 
type.  Who  reverences  the  self-seeking  politician 
or  merchant  or  doctor  or  minister  ?  We  have  to 
hide  our  self-seeking  if  we  want  to  be  honored. 
On  the  other  hand,  how  can  life  make  a  brave  man 
if  he  does  not  face  danger,  or  a  patient  man  if  he 
does  not  bear  burdens  ?  How  can  life  make  a  true 
man  if  he  does  not  suffer  for  the  sake  of  his  brother 
man  ?  Only  as  this  Anglo-Saxon  people  are  willing 
to  put  themselves  imderneath  the  African  race  and 
lift  it  up,  and  underneath  the  Pole  and  the  Hun- 
garian, and  the  Italian  and  the  Russian,  and  lift 
them  up  ;  only  as  they  are  willing  to  lay  down  their 
lives  that  other  men  may  walk  up  the  incline  to 
a  higher  life,  will  or  can  the  world  be  saved. 

The  Christian  minister  has  then  a  social  no  less 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    155 

than  a  personal  message.  His  aim  is  not  merely  the 
salvation  of  souls,  it  is  the  salvation  of  society.  His 
theme  is  the  kingdom  of  (Jod  as  it  was  the  theme 
of  his  Master.  And  in  some  sense  this  social  mes- 
sage is  peculiarly  required  in  our  age  and  our  coun- 
try. If  this  social  gospel  is  not  his  preeminent 
theme  above  all  other  themes,  this  age  is  preemi- 
nent above  aU  other  ages  in  its  call  for  this  message. 
Into  the  United  States  God  has  poured  a  vast 
heterogeneous  population.  The  picture  which  John 
painted  in  the  Apocalypse  may  be  seen  here,  with  a 
difference ;  men  gathered  out  of  all  nations  and 
kindreds  and  peoples  and  tongues,  but  not  before 
the  throne  of  God,  nor  praising  him.  Every  phase 
of  indiAddual  character  is  here  represented ;  every 
race,  every  nationality,  every  language,  every  form  of 
religion.  Here  are  the  Irishman,  the  Englishman, 
the  Frenchman,  the  Swede,  the  Norwegian,  the  Ger- 
man, the  Hungarian,  the  Pole,  the  Italian,  the 
Spaniard,  the  Portuguese.  Here  are  the  Celt,  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  the  African,  the  Malay.  Here  is 
the  negro,  with  his  emotional  religion  ;  the  Koman 
Catholic,  with  his  ceremonial  religion ;  the  Puritan, 
with  his  intellectual  religion,  and  the  unbelieving 
German,  with  his  no  religion  at  aU.  Hither  they 
have  come  trooping,  sometimes  beckoned  by  us, 
sometimes  thrust  upon  us,  sometimes  invading  us  ; 
but  welcome  or  unwelcome,  still  they  come.  To 
America  the  language  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  pro- 
phet may  be  almost  literally  applied : 


156  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

The  sons  of  strangers  shall  build  up  thy  walls, 
And  their  kings  shall  minister  unto  thee  ; 

Thy  gates  also  shall  be  open  continually ; 

They  shall  not  be  shut  day  nor  night ; 

That  men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  forces  of  the  Gentiles, 

And  that  their  kings  may  be  brought.^ 

This  heterogeneous  people  occupy  a  land  which 
embraces  every  variety  of  climate  from  northern 
Europe  to  middle  Asia,  and  every  variety  of  wealth 
from  the  wheatfields  of  Russia  to  the  gold  mines 
of  Australia.  Its  fertile  soil  gives  every  variety  of 
production,  from  the  pine-trees  of  Maine  to  the 
orange  groves  of  Florida.  It  has  for  agriculture 
vast  prairies  of  exhaustless  wealth ;  for  mines, 
mountains  rich  in  coal,  iron,  copper,  silver,  gold ; 
for  mills,  swift  running  rivers ;  for  carriage,  slow 
and  deep  ones ;  and  for  commerce,  a  harbor-indented 
coast-line  lying  open  to  two  oceans  and  inviting  the 
commerce  of  both  hemispheres.  I  do  not  dwell  upon 
the  magnificence  of  this  endowment,  —  that  is  a 
familiar  aspect,  —  but  upon  its  diversity.  The  na- 
tion which  occupies  such  a  land  must  be  diverse  in 
industry  as  it  is  heterogeneous  in  population.  The 
simplicity  of  social  and  industrial  organization  has 
long  since  passed  away.  There  are  few  richer  men 
in  the  world  than  in  America,  and  none  who  have 
amassed  such  wealth  in  so  short  a  time  ;  there  are 
no   poorer  men  in  the  world,  and   nowhere  men 

^  Isaiah  Ix,  10,  11.    The  whole  chapter  applies  in  a  remarkable 
manner  to  the  present  condition  of  the  United  States. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    157 

whose  poverty  is  so  embittered  by  disappointed 
hopes  and  shattered  ambitions.  In  the  Old  World 
men  are  born  to  poverty,  and  accept  their  predes- 
tined lot  with  contentment,  if  not  with  cheerfulness. 
In  America  the  ambitious  youth  sees  a  possible 
preferment  in  the  future;  counts  every  advance 
only  a  step  toward  further  advancement,  and  attri- 
butes every  failure  to  injustice  or  ill  luck.  Society, 
thus  made  up  of  heterogeneous  population,  sub- 
jected to  the  educational  influence  of  widely  differ- 
ing religions,  engaged  in  industries  whose  interests 
often  seem  to  conflict,  if  they  actually  do  not,  and 
separated  into  classes  by  continually  shifting  par- 
tition walls,  is  kept  in  perpetual  ferment  by  the 
nature  of  its  educational,  political,  and  social  insti- 
tutions. The  boys  of  the  rich  and  the  poor  sit  by 
each  other's  side  in  the  same  schoolroom ;  their 
fathers  brush  against  each  other  in  the  same  con- 
veyance. The  hod-carrier  and  the  millionaire  hang 
by  the  same  strap,  and  sway  against  each  other  in 
the  same  street-car.  Every  election  brings  rich  and 
poor,  cultivated  and  ignorant,  into  line  to  deposit 
ballots  of  equal  weight  in  the  same  ballot  box,  and 
make  it  the  interest  of  each  to  win  the  suffrage 
of  the  other  for  his  candidate  and  his  party.  The 
caldron,  political,  social,  and  industrial,  is  always 
boiling;  the  bottom  thrown  to  the  top,  the  top 
sinking  in  turn  to  the  bottom.  The  canal-boat 
driver  becomes  President;  the  deck-hand  a  rail- 
road magnate.    The  son  of  the  President  mingles 


158  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

with  the  masses  of  the  people  in  the  battle  for  po- 
sition and  preferment,  and  the  son  of  yesterday's 
millionaire  is  to-morrow  earning  his  daily  bread  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow.  In  the  Old  World  men  Hve 
like  monks  in  a  monastery ;  each  class,  if  not  each 
individual,  has  its  own  cell.  Here  all  walls  are 
down,  and  all  classes  live  in  common.  All  this  is 
familiar;  it  is  enough  here  to  sketch  it  in  the  bar- 
est outlines ;  for  my  only  purpose  in  recalling  it  is 
to  ask  the  reader  to  consider  what  is  its  moral 
meaning.  It  can  have  but  one.  Into  this  continent 
God  has  thrown  this  heterogeneous  people,  in  this 
effervescent  and  seething  mass,  that  in  the  struggle 
they  may  learn  the  laws  of  social  life.  African, 
Malay,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  Celt,  ignorant  and  culti- 
vated, rich  and  poor, — he  flings  us  together  under 
institutions  which  inextricably  intermix  us,  that 
he  may  teach  us  by  experience  the  meaning  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man. 

Our  national  history  confirms  this  interpretation 
—  if  any  confirmation  were  needed.  The  questions 
of  our  national  history  have  all  been  social,  not  the- 
ological. We  can  hardly  conceive  that  battles  were 
fought,  as  bitter  as  our  civil  war,  over  the  question 
whether  God  should  be  defined  as  existing  in  one 
Person  or  in  three;  whether  the  Son  should  be 
defined  as  proceeding  from  the  Father  or  created 
by  him  ;  whether  he  should  be  described  as  of  the 
same  substance  or  only  as  of  like  substance.  We 
can  hardly  conceive  that  Europe  was  plunged  into 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    159 

fierce  wars  by  the  question  whether  righteousness 
was  imputed  or  imparted.  But  these  were  the  real 
questions  of  the  past ;  if  they  seem  insignificant  to 
us  now,  it  is  only,  because  we  do  not  look  beneath 
the  form  to  the  substance  of  the  issues  involved,  — 
issues  as  sublime  as  ever  demanded  the  supremest 
consideration  and  the  most  devoted  zeal  of  men. 
For  these  questions  men  once  willingly  died;  for 
them  they  now  unwillingly  keep  awake  for  half 
an  hour  of  a  Sunday  afternoon.  The  questions  for 
which  we  have  fought,  and  are  willing  to  fight  again 
if  need  be,  are  questions  of  a  different  sort.  Slavery, 
temperance,  labor  and  capital,  the  tariff,  public  edu- 
cation :  these  present  the  questions  of  our  national 
life,  and  they  are  all  aspects  and  phases  of  one 
question,  —  What  are  the  divine  laws  of  social  life  ? 
Are  there  any  principles  of  government,  known  or 
discoverable,  which  wiU  enable  men  who  differ  in 
origin,  in  condition,  in  race,  and  in  religious  belief, 
to  live  harmoniously  together  in  one  commonwealth, 
—  that  is,  in  one  social  and  political  organization, 
so  fashioned  and  carried  on  as  to  promote  their 
common  welfare  ? 

This  question  the  clergy  and  the  Church  must 
help  to  answer.  It  is  emphatically  a  religious  ques- 
tion.i  If  the  Church  does  not  interest  itseK  in  what 
concerns  humanity,  it  cannot  hope  that  humanity 
wiU   interest  itself  in  what  concerns  the  Church. 

^  "  Every  political  question  is  rapidly  becoming  a  social  ques- 
tion, and  every  social  question  a  religious  question."  —  Mazzini. 


160  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Why,  indeed,  should  it  ?  If  the  Church  shelters  it- 
self under  the  plea  that  religion  is  a  matter  between 
the  individual  soul  and  God,  it  adopts  a  very  much 
narrower  definition  of  religion  than  that  of  the 
Bible.  The  Hebrew  prophet  who  asked,  "What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly, 
and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God  ?  "  1  had  a  conception  of  religion  two  parts  of 
which  have  to  do  with  our  relations  to  our  fellow 
men,  and  one  part  to  our  relations  with  God. 
Christ's  summary  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  puts 
as  much  emphasis  on  the  brotherhood  of  man  as 
on  the  fatherhood  of  God.  Indeed,  it  could  not  be 
otherwise.  A  religion  which  did  not  teach  us  how 
to  hve  on  earth  would  have  small  claims  upon  our 
respect  when  it  claimed  to  teach  us  how  to  prepare 
for  heaven.  A  captain  who  does  not  know  how  to 
manage  a  ship  at  sea  cannot  be  trusted  to  bring 
her  into  port.  A  teacher  who  cannot  teU  his  boys 
how  to  get  along  with  one  another  in  school  is  not 
the  man  to  prepare  them  to  get  along  with  one 
another  as  men  in  manhood. 

To  whom  else  shall  the  people  look  for  instruc- 
tion in  the  moral  principles  of  a  true  social  order 
if  not  to  the  ministry  ?  Shall  they  look  to  the  poli- 
ticians ?  Their  function  in  a  democracy  is  not  to  in- 
culcate, still  less  to  discover,  great  principles.  They 
are  executive  officers,  not  teachers.  They  are  ap- 
pointed to  formulate  in  law  and  so  make  effective 

^  Micah  vi,  8. 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    161 

the  principles  which,  under  the  instruction  of  others, 
the  people  have  adopted.  This  is  what  more  or 
less  effectively  they  are  doing ;  and  this  is  what  they 
ought  to  do.  The"  politician  is  not  a  motive  power  ; 
he  is  a  belting,  and  connects  the  motive  power  with 
the  machinery.  He  gets  things  done  when  the  peo- 
ple have  determined  what  they  want  done.  The 
bankers  and  financiers  deliberate  and  discuss,  and 
when  the  popular  determination  as  to  the  currency 
is  reached  as  the  result  of  this  discussion.  Congress 
incorporates  it  in  a  law.  The  politicians  wiU  never 
determine  what  is  the  best  legal  method  of  dealing 
with  the  liquor  traffic.  When  the  people  have  deter- 
mined, the  politicians  may  be  trusted  to  carry  that 
determination  into  effect.  The  people  cannot  learn 
the  moral  laws  of  the  social  order  from  the  politi- 
cians ;  the  politicians  must  learn  them  from  the 
people.  The  master  does  not  take  orders  from  his 
servant ;  the  servant  takes  them  from  his  master. 
Shall  we  then  look  to  the  editors  for  moral  instruc- 
tion in  sociology  ?  The  editors  ought  to  be  public 
teachers,  but  with  few  exceptions  they  have  abdi- 
cated. The  secular  press  is  devoted  to  secular  news- 
gathering  and  to  party  service  ;  the  religious  press 
to  ecclesiastical  news-gathering  and  denominational 
service.  There  are  some  notable  exceptions,  but 
they  only  prove  the  rule.  Not  long  since  I  heard 
one  of  the  editors  of  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
successful,  though  not  most  influential,  of  American 
journals  say  in  a  public  debate  that  the  daily  paper 


162  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

was  organized  to  make  money,  and  that  was  what 
it  ought  to  be  organized  for.  So  long  as  this  is 
deemed  true  by  the  editors,  the  newspaper  cannot 
be  a  teacher.  The  world  has  never  paid  for  leader- 
ship until  the  leader  was  dead.  Such  a  press  can 
only  crystallize  the  public  sentiment  which  others 
have  created,  and  so  make  efficacious  a  feeling 
which  otherwise  would  effervesce  in  emotion.  This 
it  does,  and  for  this  service  we  are  duly  grateful. 
But  it  cannot  —  at  least  it  generally  does  not  —  do 
the  work  of  an  investigator.  It  does  not  discover 
laws  of  life.  It  does  not  create ;  it  only  represents. 
It  is  a  reservoir,  without  which  the  miU  could  not 
be  driven ;  but  the  reservoir  must  itself  be  fed  by 
the  springs  among  the  hiUs. 

The  real  formers  of  public  opinion  are  the  teach- 
ers and  the  preachers,  the  schools  and  the  churches. 
The  teachers  are  necessarily  empirical ;  they  deduce 
the  laws  of  life  from  a  study  of  past  experience. 
The  preachers  ought  to  be  prophets.  Their  sympa- 
thy with  all  classes  of  men,  their  common  contact 
with  rich  and  poor,  their  opportunities  for  reflection 
and  meditation,  and  their  supposed  consecration  to 
a  work  whoUy  unselfish  and  disinterested,  ought  to 
combine  with  their  piety  to  give  them  that  insight 
into  life  which  has  always  been  characteristic  of  a 
prophetic  order.  I  do  not  mean  to  demand  of  the 
ministry  the  impossible;  but  if  this  is  not  their 
function,  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  what  function 
they  have.   They  cannot  formulate  public  opinion 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    163 

in  laws  as  well  as  the  politicians ;  they  cannot  re- 
present that  public  opinion  as  well  as  the  journal- 
ists ;  they  cannot  extract  the  truth  from  a  scientific 
study  of  life  as  well  as  the  teacher  and  the  scholar. 
But  so  far  as  natural  selection,  aided  by  special 
studies  and  a  generally  quiet  life,  can  equip  any 
class  of  men  for  a  prophetic  function,  and  so  fit 
them  to  discern  the  great  moral  laws  of  the  social 
order,  the  ministry  are  so  equipped.  If  they  wiU 
leave  the  professional  teachers  to  expound  the  secu- 
lar, that  is,  the  empirical  side  of  social  science,  the 
newspapers  to  reflect  such  conclusions  as  are  reached 
respecting  social  science,  and  the  politicians  to  em- 
body those  opinions  and  principles  in  law,  and  wiU 
devote  themselves  to  the  spiritual  study  of  the  Book 
and  of  life,  they  can  be  leaders  of  the  leaders.  They 
can  lay  the  foundations  on  which  other  men  shall 
rear  the  superstructure.  They  speak,  or  can  speak, 
to  all  classes  in  the  community,  for  they  belong  to 
none.  They  address  audiences  of  personal  friends, 
whom  they  have  counseled  and  aided  in  the  hours 
when  friendship  is  the  most  fuU  of  sweet  signifi- 
cance. They  speak  to  these  friends  at  a  time  when 
baser  passions  are  aUayed  and  loyal  sentiments  are 
awakened.  The  very  smallness  of  their  auditory  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  journalist  adds  force  to 
their  counsels  and  affords  protection  from  misappre- 
hension. 

The  pulpit  for  to-day,  then,  must  be  competent 
to  give  instruction  in  the  moral  laws  which  govern 


164  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

social  and  industrial  life,  —  the  organized  life  of 
humanity.  The  age  requires  this  instruction;  the 
people  desire  it ;  the  ministers  should  give  it.  If 
the  minister  will  go  to  his  Book  for  this  purpose,  he 
will  find  it  quite  as  rich  in  sociological  as  in  the- 
ological instniction ;  quite  as  fertile  in  its  sugges- 
tions respecting  the  duty  of  man  to  man  as  in  its 
suggestions  respecting  the  nature  and  government 
of  God.  He  will  find  his  New  Testament  teUing 
him  that  in  Christ's  kingdom  the  strong  are  to  serve 
the  weak ;  the  rich,  the  poor ;  —  that  is,  the  factory 
owner  is  to  serve  his  hands,  the  railroad  prince,  his 
trainmen ;  that  controversies  are  to  be  settled  not 
by  wage  of  battle  or  its  modern  equivalent,  strikes 
and  lockouts,  but  by  mutual  concessions  and  ulti- 
mate appeal  to  an  impartial  tribunal,  —  in  other 
words,  by  conciliation  and  arbitration;  that  the 
State  is  not  a  "  social  compact,"  nor  government 
a  "  necessary  evil ;  "  that  the  one  is  a  divinely  con- 
stituted organism,  and  the  other  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  its  existence  ;  that  the  judicial  function  does 
not  belong  to  humanity,  and  therefore  the  judicial 
system  wiU  never  become  truly  Christian  till  it 
ceases  to  be  an  effort  to  administer  justice  and  be- 
comes an  effort  to  administer  mercy ;  that  the  bro- 
therhood of  man  is  an  integral  part  of  Christianity 
no  less  than  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  that  to 
deny  the  one  is  no  less  infidel  than  to  deny  the 
other.  In  short,  while  he  will  find  in  the  Book 
which  he  is  appointed  to  interpret  no  light  upon 


THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MINISTRY    165 

scientific  details  of  poKtical  or  industrial  organiza- 
tion, he  will  find  the  great  moral  laws  of  the  social 
order,  if  not  clearly  revealed,  at  least  definitely  indi- 
cated, and  in  them  abundant  material  for  sermons 
which  will  be  interesting  because  giving  instruc- 
tion which  is  both  imperatively  needed  and  eagerly 
desired.  Sir  Henry  Maine  ^  has  shown  very  clearly 
that  democracy  is  not  yet  "  triumphant  democracy; " 
it  is  stiU  an  experiment.  The  American  Revolution 
determined  our  right  to  try  it  on  this  continent 
without  fear  of  foreign  intervention;  a  civil  war 
determined  our  right  to  try  it  without  fear  of  do- 
mestic disruption.  We  have  still  to  work  the  prob- 
lem out.  Whether  a  people  diverse  in  race,  religion, 
and  industry  can  live  happily  and  prosperously  to- 
gether, with  no  other  law  than  the  invisible  law  of 
right  and  wrong  and  with  no  other  authority  than 
the  unarmed  authority  of  conscience,  is  the  question 
which  America  has  to  solve  for  the  world.  No  one 
class  in  the  community  has  a  more  potent  influence 
in  determining  what  shall  be  its  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion than  the  American  clergy. 

1  Henry  Sumner  Maine:    Pofpular  Government,  Essay  H,  on 
"  The  Nature  of  Democracy." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST 

The  duties  of  religious  ministry  in  Old  Testament 
time  were  discharged  by  two  classes  of  ministers, 
— priests  and  prophets.  The  priest  conducted  public 
worship,  the  prophet  furnished  religious  instruction  : 
rarely  was  the  same  man  both  priest  and  prophet. 
It  is  true  that  the  priest  sometimes  furnished  reli- 
gious instruction,  and  the  prophets  sometimes  accom- 
panied their  prophesyings  with  music,  which  may 
have  been  a  kind  of  public  worship ;  but,  speaking 
broadly,  the  conducting  of  public  worship  was 
carried  on  by  the  priests,  and  religious  instruction 
and  inspiration  were  furnished  by  the  prophets. 

The  object  of  religious  worship  is  the  expression 
of  an  existing  religious  life ;  the  object  of  religious 
instruction  is  the  impartation  of  such  life.  In  our 
time  these  two  functions  are  generally  united  in  one 
service.  By  the  expression  of  religious  life  we  help 
to  promote  it ;  in  promoting  religious  life  we  neces- 
sarily give  expression  to  it.  But  they  may  be,  and 
in  point  of  fact  they  often  are,  differentiated. 
Sometimes  public  worship  is  without  any  public 
instruction.  In  most  of  the  cathedrals  of  Spain, 
and  in  many  of  those  in  Italy,  there  are  small 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  167 

facilities  for  public  instruction.  There  is  no  pul- 
pit ;  there  are  no  seats  for  a  congregation  ;  and  in 
point  of  fact  in  many  of  the  larger  churches  in 
those  countries  no  public  instruction  is  given  except 
during  the  Lenten  season.  Thus  there  is  religious 
worship  without  any  instruction.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  may  be  religious  instruction  without  any  wor- 
ship. There  is  no  indication  that  there  was  any 
public  worship  connected  with  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount ;  it  is  certain  that  there  was  no  public  wor- 
ship in  connection  with  Paul's  sermon  at  Athens. 
There  is  held  every  winter  in  New  York,  in  Cooper 
Union,  on  Sunday  evenings,  a  series  of  public  reli- 
gious addresses.  Jew  and  Christian,  Protestant  and 
Roman  Catholic,  Churchman  and  Anarchist,  com- 
bine to  fill  Cooper  Union  Hall  fairly  fuU ;  and  under 
these  circumstances  those  who  arrange  for  these 
meetings  think  it  not  wise  to  have  any  religious 
services.  There  is  no  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  no 
prayer,  no  singing  of  hymns ;  there  is  simply  a 
religious  lecture.  And  the  heterogeneous  congrega- 
tion of  non-church-goers  assembled  and  the  attention 
they  give  to  the  more  serious  discourses  justify  the 
method  pursued. 

There  is  no  essential  reason  why  any  minister 
might  not  in  his  church  maintain  this  distinction, 
and  have  sometimes  a  service  without  any  instruc- 
tion, and  sometimes  instruction  without  any  service. 
Whether  this  would  be  wise  or  not  would  depend 
upon  the  condition  of  the  homes  in  the  village  or 


168  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

town  where  the  church  is  situated.  Ordinarily  the 
instruction  and  the  worship  are  better  commingled ; 
each  is  better  for  being  connected  with  the  other; 
the  service  is  more  real  and  rational  if  connected 
with  instruction ;  the  instruction  is  more  spiritual 
and  vital  if  connected  with  some  public  worship. 
But  there  is  no  essential  impropriety  in  having  either 
without  the  other. 

It  is  true  the  best  expression  of  our  religious  life 
is  in  our  conduct,  in  what  we  do,  not  in  what  we 
say.  It  is  also  true  that  the  expression  of  our  re- 
ligious life  which  is  personal  and  individual  is  more 
important  than  that  which  is  public  and  common. 
"  When  thou  prayest,"  says  Christ,  "  enter  into  thy 
closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to 
thy  Father  which  is  in  secret ;  and  thy  Father,  which 
seeth  in  secret,  shall  reward  thee  openly."  ^  But 
those  of  us  who  have  a  common  religious  life,  —  a 
reverence  for  God,  a  hope  in  God,  a  responsiveness 
toward  God,  a  comfort  in  God,  a  love  for  God, 
will  inevitably  desire  to  come  together  and  find 
some  common  expression  for  these  common  experi- 
ences. This  is  public  worship.  The  most  impor- 
tant way  in  which  a  boy  can  express  his  love  for 
his  father  is  by  obedience  to  his  commands.  If  he 
does  not  show  it  in  that  way,  aU  the  other  ways  are 
of  little  value.  The  most  sacred  hour  of  the  week 
for  him  is  the  hour  when  he  sits  down  alone  with 
his  father  or  his  mother,  and  these  two  talk  together 
1  Matt,  vi,  6. 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  169 

confidentially  with  no  one  to  hear,  and  speak  almost 
in  whispers,  as  though  they  would  not  even  allow 
their  own  ears  to  hear  their  own  words.  But  still 
the  home  would  be  very  imperfect  were  there  not 
some  hours  in  which  the  whole  family  gather  to- 
gether and  interchange  their  thought  and  their 
feeling,  so  that  their  lives  flow  in  one  commingled 
stream.  What  these  hours  of  human  fellowship  in 
the  family  are  to  the  home  life,  the  hours  of  worship 
are  to  the  church  life.  They  are  of  vital  importance. 
The  minister  makes  a  very  great  mistake,  in  my 
judgment  a  fatal  mistake,  if  he  thinks  his  chief 
function  is  to  be  a  preacher  of  sermons.  Certainly 
not  less  important  is  his  function  to  inspire,  direct, 
and  conduct  the  worship  of  a  worshiping  people. 
To  do  this  he  has  in  all  Protestant  churches  three  in- 
strumentalities, —  the  distinctively  devotional  meet- 
ing, the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  public  worship  in 
the  regular  Sunday  service. 

I.  Every  church  ought  to  have  some  meeting  or 
meetings  primarily  if  not  exclusively  for  the  ex- 
pression of  its  devotional  life.  They  may  be  litur- 
gical or  non-liturgical  or  a  combination  of  the  lit- 
urgical and  non-liturgical;  they  may  be  intermingled 
with  instruction  or  exhortation  or  both,  or  they  may 
be  exclusively  devotional;  what  is  essential  is  that 
their  primary  object  should  be,  not  a  teaching  of 
truth,  not  an  appeal  to  the  emotions  or  the  will,  but 
an  expression  of  the  already  existing  life  of  peni- 
tence  and  consecration    and   praise.    And   if   the 


170  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

meeting  is  devoted  to  that  object,  and  that  object 
exclusively,  it  wiU  necessarily  be  attractive  only  to 
those  who  possess  or  desire  to  possess  such  spiritual 
life,  and  to  share  the  expression  of  it  with  others. 
In  other  words,  only  those  will  be  attracted  to  the 
purely  devotional  meeting  who  are  both  social  and 
spiritual,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  who  are  socially 
spiritual. 

The  descendants  of  the  Puritans  have  made  a 
great  mistake  in  measuring  devotional  meetings  by 
quantity,  not  by  quality.  I  confess  to  that  mistake 
myself.  In  my  earlier  ministry  I  measured  the 
spirituality  of  my  church  by  the  size  of  the  prayer- 
meeting.  If  I  went  back  into  the  ministry,  I  should 
not  apply  that  measure.  I  should  not  try  to  make 
the  prayer-meeting  large,  and  should  not  be  dis- 
couraged because  it  was  small ;  I  should  not  urge 
the  people  to  attend  it  from  sense  of  duty,  nor  try 
to  draw  them  to  it  by  purely  social  attractions.  I 
should  wish  to  get  together  on  certain  occasions 
those  members  of  the  church  who  had  a  spiritual 
life  to  which  they  wished  to  give  expression  in 
common  with  other  members  of  the  church,  and 
only  those.  If  there  were  three,  I  would  begin  with 
three  ;  if  thirty,  I  should  be  glad  of  the  thirty.  If 
twenty  more  should  come  in  who  had  no  spiritual 
life,  who  did  not  care  for  the  prayer-meeting,  and 
to  whom  the  prayer-meeting  meant  nothing,  I  should 
wish  them  to  stay  away.  I  should  not  wish  a  for- 
eign element  in  a  meeting  the  object  of  which  is 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  171 

not  to  impart  religious  life  to  others  but  to  express 
religious  life  by  a  common  devotion. 

A  man  may  be  a  very  good  man,  lie  may  be  a 
profoundly  religious  man,  and  not  be  interested  in 
a  purely  devotional  meeting.  His  religious  life  may 
find  its  expression  in  his  daily  acts  and  in  private 
devotions.  The  devotional  meeting  of  the  church 
may  be  liturgical,  and  the  liturgy  may  fail  to  afford 
the  expression  which  fits  his  temperament ;  or  it 
may  be  non-liturgical,  and  his  critical  temper  may 
make  it  impossible  for  him  to  preserve  a  devotional 
spirit  in  spite  of  the  infelicities  of  expression  in 
the  extemporaneous  prayers.  No  man  has  any  right 
to  set  up  his  own  method  of  expression  of  spiritual 
life  as  a  standard  and  then  measure  all  men  by  that 
standard.  Neither  the  Roman  Catholic  nor  the 
Episcopal  Church  has  what  is  ordinarily  designated 
by  the  term  prayer-meeting.  Yet  both  have  devel- 
oped high  types  of  devotional  life.  Nor  is  it  true 
that  the  prayer-meeting  is  the  thermometer  of  the 
Church,  if  by  that  phrase  is  meant  that  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  the  Church  is  to  be  measured  by  the 
size  of  the  prayer-meeting.  The  true  measure  of 
the  Church  is  the  efficiency  of  its  active  service. 
Christ  has  given  to  his  disciples  the  true  measuring 
rod :  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  ^ 

The  difference  between  the  meeting  for  spiritual 
expression  and  the  meeting  for  public  instruction  is 
very  clearly  indicated  by  certain  contrasts  in  the 
1  Matt,  vu,  20. 


172  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

New  Testament.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was 
delivered  to  a  great  concourse.  It  is  an  address  for 
the  impartation  of  religious  instruction.  The  con- 
versation of  Christ,  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and 
sixteenth  chapters  of  John,  was  an  expression  of 
spiritual  life  to  those  who  were  already  in  sympathy 
with  the  Master.  All  others  were  excluded :  Christ 
did  not  begin  that  conversation  with  them  until  the 
traitor  had  gone  out.  Even  more  striking  is  the 
contrast  between  what  we  call  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  the  prayer  which  Christ  offered  just  before  his 
Passion,  as  it  is  reported  in  the  seventeenth  chapter 
of  John.  The  Lord's  Prayer  expresses  the  common 
wishes  of  unspiritual  humanity,  —  for  daily  bread, 
forgiveness  of  sin,  guidance,  deliverance  from  temp- 
tation. But  when  Christ  comes  to  offer  prayer  in 
the  innermost  circle  of  his  own  disciples,  he  says  no- 
thing about  daily  bread,  —  he  assumes  his  Father's 
care  for  his  own ;  he  says  nothing  about  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  —  he  assumes  that  these  men  have  been 
forgiven ;  he  does  not  ask  that  they  shall  not  be  led 
into  temptation.  The  only  petition  that  is  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer  in  Matthew  and  also  in  the  Lord's 
prayer  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John,  is  the 
prayer  for  deliverance  from  evil.  "  I  pray  not  that 
thou  shouldest  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but  that 
thou  shouldest  keep  them  from  the  Evil  One." 
And  then  follows  prayer  for  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ  his  Son, 
which  will  make  them  one  with  God  as  the  Father 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  173 

and  the  Son  are  one  with  each  other.  One  is  a 
prayer  of  Christ  and  for  those  who  are  already  in 
fellowship  with  him  ;  the  other  voices  the  common 
aspirations  of  universal  humanity. 

Public  worship  may,  and  in  some  sense  does, 
both  express  and  develop  the  dormant  reverence 
in  the  community,  so  that  the  life  of  men  who  never 
attend  worship  is  modified  in  its  spiritual  quality 
from  the  mere  fact  that  they  dwell  in  a  community 
where  worshipers  dwell  and  public  worship  is  car- 
ried on.  Thus  the  atmosphere  of  a  college  where 
a  wholly  voluntary  chapel  service  is  maintained, 
which  is  attended  by  only  a  minority  of  the  stu- 
dents, is  different  from  one  which  is  without  any 
devotional  exercises  of  any  description.  It  is  also 
true  that  public  worship  often  enkindles  spiritual 
life  in  those  who  chance  to  attend  it,  without  pre- 
viously sharing  in  that  life.  For  both  reasons 
weekly  meetings  wholly  devotional  in  their  char- 
acter may  be  advantageously  maintained,  to  which 
the  undevotional  may  be  not  only  welcomed  but 
invited  or  even  urged.  It  is  also  true  that  weekly 
meetings  may  well  be  held  in  the  church  for  other 
than  purely  devotional  purposes.  The  pastor  may 
maintain  a  weekly  lecture,  or  a  weekly  Bible  class, 
or  a  meeting  to  arouse  missionary  enthusiasm,  or 
one  for  purely  social  fellowship ;  or  he  may  com- 
bine two  or  more  of  these  objects  in  one  meeting, 
and  that  meeting  may  be  held  on  the  same  evening 
with  a  purely  devotional  meeting,  either  preceding 


174  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

or  following  it.  But  he  makes  a  mistake  if  lie  al- 
lows any  meeting  to  take  the  place  of  one  purely 
devotional  in  its  character ;  or  if  he  attempts  by 
extraneous  attractions  to  draw  the  unspiritual  into 
the  devotional  meeting,  or  by  appeals  to  a  sense 
of  duty  to  coerce  them  into  it.  "  Where  two  or 
three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am 
I  in  the  midst  of  them,"  says  Christ. ^  A  fourth 
who  has  not  come  in  Christ's  name  does  not  add 
to  but  detracts  from  the  spiritual  value  of  such  a 
gathering. 

II.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  a  memorial  service. 
"  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me,"  ^  is  a  request 
rather  than  a  command.  Christ  wished  to  be  re- 
membered. One  thing  and  only  one  does  he  ask  us 
to  do  for  himself  ;  he  says.  Do  not  forget  me.  And 
that  you  do  not  forget  me,  now  and  again  meet  to- 
gether and  take  this  bread  and  this  wine  in  memory 
of  me.  The  one  thing  that  we  can  do  for  Christ 
that  is  not  for  the  service  of  some  one  else  is  our 
participation  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 

But  the  Lord's  Supper  is  something  more  than 
a  memorial.  It  is  an  occasion  wherein  we  may 
especially  feel,  if  we  will,  the  companionship  of  our 
Lord.  He  who  believes  that  the  benefit  of  Christ's 
presence  is  purely  through  a  spiritual  inspiration, 
not  through  any  material  or  mechanical  medium, 
cannot  accept  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation, 
that  is,  the  doctrine  that  at  the  moment  of  con- 

1  Matt,  xviii,  20.  ^  Luke  xxii,  19. 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  175 

secration  the  bread  and  wine  are  changed  into  the 
"  body,  blood,  soul,  and  divinity  of  our  Lord."  He 
who  believes  that  Christ  is  really  present  whenever 
two  or  three  ar^  gathered  together  in  his  name, 
cannot  believe  that  he  is  any  more  reaUy  present 
in  the  Lord's  Supper  than  in  any  other  truly  devo- 
tional meeting.  But  we  may  well  believe  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  affords  an  occasion  wherein  those 
who  participate  in  it  may  especially  realize,  if  they 
win,  the  companionship  of  their  Lord.  For  this 
sacred  half  hour,  not  merely  our  pleasures  and 
cares  and  customary  vocations  are  removed  from 
our  thoughts,  but  also  our  daily  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities. Our  whole  attention  is  concentrated  on 
companionship  with  our  Master  and  our  Friend. 
We  come  to  this  service  in  a  receptive  mood  of 
mind.  Our  thoughts  are  directed  not  to  what  we 
should  do,  or  what  we  should  think,  or  what  we 
are,  they  are  not  even  directed  to  what  we  need ;  they 
are  directed  away  from  ourselves  altogether  to  An- 
other. The  service  is  one  of  self-f  orgetf  ulness  because 
it  is  a  service  of  love-remembrance.  The  meal  is  itself 
a  symbol  of  the  fellowship  which  it  both  expresses 
and  cultivates.  We  do  not  know  a  family  until  we 
have  taken  a  meal  with  them  ;  but  when  we  have 
sat  down  to  the  same  table  with  them,  in  eating 
together  we  come  into  their  family  life.  The  Lord's 
Supper  we  eat  with  him,  and  so  enter  into  fellow- 
ship with  him.  This  makes  it  a  Lord's  Supper.  It 
is  therefore  a  Eucharist,  a  thanksgiving.    We  ought 


176  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

not  to  meet  for  tlie  Lord's  Supper  with  streaming 
eyes  and  heavy  hearts,  but  with  thankfulness  and 
gladness  in  him.  This  should  be  a  feast,  not  a 
funeral.  And  it  is  a  Communion,  in  which  we  are 
brought  close  to  one  another  because  we  are  brought 
close  to  him,  and  the  ecclesiastical  and  theological 
and  philosophical  and  temperamental  differences 
for  a  little  time  disappear. 

For  the  same  reason  that  our  devotional  meetings 
should  be  so  arranged  that  they  may  be  the  gather- 
ing only  of  those  who  are  devout  of  spirit,  the 
Lord's  Supper  should  be  frequently,  if  not  gener- 
ally, so  arranged  as  to  be  a  private  meeting  of  loyal 
disciples,  as  the  first  Lord's  Supper  was.  This 
may  be  done  by  an  early  communion,  as  in  the 
Episcopal  Church,  or  by  a  special  celebration  in 
the  afternoon,  which  was  the  custom  in  the  New 
England  churches  in  my  boyhood.  If  it  comes  at 
the  close  of  the  morning  service,  it  should  be  sepa- 
rated from  that  service,  and  there  should  be  an 
opportunity  left  for  those  to  withdraw  who  are  not 
intending  to  partake  of  the  communion,  that  it  may 
be  a  real  communion  of  those  who  are  already  at- 
tached to  Christ  and  desire  personal,  spiritual,  and 
intimate  fellowship  with  him.  It  is  hardly  wise  to 
put  our  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  our  fourteenth, 
fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  chapters  of  John  within 
the  same  hour ;  if  we  do,  we  should  certainly  leave 
a  little  interim  between  them. 

III.  The  third  instrumentality  for  the  expression 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  177 

of  devotional  life  in  tlie  churcli  is  the  public  wor- 
ship as  a  part  of  the  regular  Sunday  service. 

If  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Episcopalians 
have  made  relatively  too  much  of  the  service  and 
too  little  of  the  sermon,  the  Puritans  and  their 
descendants  have  made  too  much  of  the  sermon  and 
too  little  of  the  service.  In  my  boyhood  days  this 
used  to  be  called  "  preliminary  exercises,"  and  still 
is  sometimes  so  called,  as  though  it  were  a  kind  of 
grace  before  meat  —  short  grace,  long  meat;  for 
we  come  to  the  table,  not  for  the  grace,  but  for  the 
food. 

The  evils  of  this  relegation  of  the  worship  to 
a  secondary  place  are  many  and  great.  The  min- 
ister gives  it  scant  attention,  devotes  the  week  to 
his  sermon,  selects  his  Scripture  reading  and  his 
hymns  after  he  comes  into  the  pulpit,  and  offers 
prayers  which  fail  to  hold  the  thought  of  the  people 
because  the  minister  has  put  no  thought  upon  them 
beforehand.  The  choir  leader  catches  the  spirit  of 
the  minister,  and  treats  the  music  as  a  kind  of 
sacred  concert  —  not  always  very  sacred  —  which 
precedes  the  sermon,  as  the  music  of  the  orchestra 
precedes  the  play,  or  as  an  aesthetic  device  to  get 
the  people  to  church,  as  though  to  get  a  careless 
people  inside  a  sacred  edifice  were  the  end  and  aim 
of  a  religious  service.  The  people  catch  the  spirit 
of  minister  and  choir,  and  think  they  are  in  abun- 
dant time  if  they  are  in  their  places  before  the  ser- 
mon, or  take  a  back  seat  and  slip  out  as  soon  as 


178  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  music  which  has  attracted  them  is  over.  And, 
deeper  than  all,  minister,  choir  master,  and  people 
are  trained  to  think  of  the  worship  of  Almighty  God 
as  a  mere  incidental  frame-work  to  a  literary  com- 
position, a  portico  to  the  sermon,  which  is  the  real 
temple,  with  a  consequent  worship  of  the  preacher 
in  lieu  of  the  worship  of  God,  and  the  expectation 
of  entertainment  from  choir  and  preacher  alike,  in 
lieu  of  serious  thought,  glad  praise,  solemn  peni- 
tence, and  renewed  consecration.  Nor  shall  we 
banish  this  fundamental  irreverence  from  our  Puri- 
tan churches,  until  we  reahze  the  truth  that  public 
worship  is  at  least  as  important  as  public  instruc- 
tion, and  ought  to  be  as  highly  esteemed,  and  de- 
serves and  requires  as  sincere  and  serious  consid- 
eration. 

Three  elements  enter  into  this  public  worship ; 
the  reading  of  Scripture,  the  singing  of  hymns,  the 
prayer. 

The  reading  of  Scripture  may  be  for  devotional 
purposes  or  for  instructional  purposes;  that  is, 
it  may  be  to  teach  the  people  something,  or 
to  express  their  devotional  life.  And  these  two  are 
quite  distinct,  and  must  be  kept  distinct  in  mind, 
though  the  two  may  be  intermingled  in  actual  prac- 
tice. The  advantage  of  the  responsive  reading  of 
the  Psalms  is  that  no  one  can  think  it  is  for  in- 
structional purposes ;  it  carries  with  it  necessarily 
the  idea  that  it  is  devotional,  not  educational.  But 
if  the  minister  would  read  the  Scripture  so  as  tP 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  179 

make  it  an  instrument  for  the  expression  of  devo- 
tion, the  Scripture  must  first  enter  into  his  own 
soul.  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,"  says 
Christ,  "  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  ^  The 
words  of  Scripture  wiU  not  be  spirit,  and  they  will 
not  be  life  to  the  congregation,  unless  they  have 
entered  into  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  reader.  He 
must  know  not  only  how  to  read  so  that  his  congre- 
gation can  hear,  but  he  must  laiow  how  to  read  so 
that  his  congregation  wiU  feel.  I  am  not  urging 
elocutionary  reading,  stiU  less  dramatic  reading, 
least  of  aU,  theatric  reading ;  I  am  urging  spiritual 
reading. 

The  musical  service  ought  to  be  distinctly  an 
expression  of  spiritual  life.  It  is  not  always ;  we 
might  say,  it  often  is  not.  We  ministers  find  fault 
with  our  choirs,  that  they  are  ill-behaved  during 
the  sermon ;  the  choirs  would  often  have  a  right 
to  find  fault  with  the  ministers,  that  they  are  ill- 
behaved  during  the  singing.  We  take  the  time  of 
song  to  look  over  our  congregation  and  see  who  are 
present ;  to  consider  whether  the  house  is  too  warm 
or  too  cold  and  caU  the  sexton  to  set  it  right ;  to 
examine  our  notices  and  consider  how  we  can  most 
effectively  announce  some  important  meeting;  or 
to  look  over  the  notes  of  the  sermon  and  refresh 
our  memories  ;  in  brief,  to  do  anything  but  join  in 
the  praise  of  God.  I  am  not  indulging  in  whole- 
sale denunciations  of  ministers;  I  am  confessing 
1  John  vi,  63. 


180  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

faults  not  uncommon  in  all  non-liturgical  pulpits. 
I  was  present  once  at  an  ordination  in  the  West 
where  a  home  missionaiy,  possessed  perhaps  of  more 
frankness  than  prudence,  after  a  long  sermon  and 
a  long  charge  to  the  congregation,  gave  out  a  hymn 
in  this  way  :  "  In  order  to  relieve  the  tedium  of  these 
exercises  we  will  sing  the  fifty-fifth  hymn, —  and 
also  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  Almighty  God."  It 
was  rather  too  candid  and  naive  a  confession  of  what 
is  really  often  in  the  minds  of  non-liturgical  minis- 
ters. Frequently  the  minister  selects  a  hymn  with- 
out reading  it,  thinks  it  too  long,  and  directs  the 
omission  of  a  verse  quite  regardless  of  the  muti- 
lating effect.  Years  ago  I  heard  a  minister  an- 
nounce a  hymn  in  that  way,  directing  us  in  singing 
to  omit  the  second  verse  ;  what  we  sang  was  this : 

When  thou,  my  righteous  Judge,  shalt  come 
To  take  thy  ransomed  people  home, 
Shall  I  among  them  stand  ? 


O  Lord,  forhid  it  by  thy  grace. 

I  once  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  one  of  our  colleges,  where 
a  young  man  selected  for  us  to  sing  a  baptismal 
hymn  in  which  we  represented  ourselves  as  bring- 
ing our  children  to  Christ  to  dedicate  them  to  him, 
and  I  suppose  I  was  the  only  married  man  in  the 
room. 

Some  instruction  in  hymnology  and  in  sacred 
music  ought  to  be  given  and  some  study  of  both 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST   .  181 

required  in  aU  theological  seminaries.  It  is  not 
necessary  that  every  minister  should  be  a  musician, 
but  it  is  very  desirable  that  he  should  at  least  have 
enough  knowledge  of  music  to  understand  its  adap- 
tability to  the  conditions  of  the  service  he  is  con- 
ducting. For  an  evangelistic  service  carried  on 
in  a  hall  crowded  with  tramps  and  lodging-house 
men,  the  Moody  and  Sankey  hymns  are  admir- 
able. They  are  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  kind  of 
people  that  are  there  gathered.  But  when  I  go  to 
a  college  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and 
"  Safe  in  the  arms  of  Jesus  "  or  "  Hallelujah,  't  i» 
done,"  is  given  out  to  be  sung,  I  know  that  the 
cultivated,  educated  young  men  of  the  coUege  are 
certain  to  be  repelled  by  any  such  form  of  expres- 
sion of  religious  life,  and  I  am  not  surprised  that 
sometimes  the  men  whom  the  service  is  intended 
to  attract  remain  outside  until  the  singing  is  over. 
The  minister  ought  to  know  something  about  hymns ; 
he  ought  to  know  something  about  music ;  and  he 
ought  to  have  sympathy  with  his  choir  leader.  We 
shall  yet  come  in  the  Church  of  Christ  to  the  con- 
clusion that  no  man  can  be  allowed  to  lead  the  wor- 
ship of  God  through  the  medium  of  music  who  is 
not  himself  devout.  It  is  as  incongruous  that  an 
undevout  choir-master  should  lead  the  worship  of 
God  as  that  an  undevout  minister  should  lead  it. 
And  yet  in  many  of  our  city  churches  the  only  ques- 
tion asked  respecting  singer  or  organist  is.  Can  she 
sing?  Can  he  play?  As  a  consequence  we  do  not  get 


182  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

music  that  is  a  vehicle  for  the  carriage  of  a  spiritual 
life.  How  can  we,  when  there  is  no  spiritual  life  in 
the  singer  to  be  conveyed  ?  We  get  perhaps  a  good 
essay  at  one  end  of  the  church,  and  a  musical  per- 
formance at  the  other.  That  is  not  worship ;  and 
it  is  not  religion.  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name 
of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain."  ^  I  sometimes  think 
that  there  is  no  place  where  that  command  is  more 
violated  than  in  some  Christian  churches. 

The  minister  is  also  to  conduct  the  worship  of 
the  congregation  by  public  prayer.  In  this  service 
he  is  preeminently  their  priest.  Some  of  us  have 
been  inclined  to  maintain  that  there  is  no  Christian 
priesthood  ;  that  the  priesthood  has  forever  passed 
away.  Certain  of  the  priestly  offices  have  passed 
away.  The  old  sacrificial  system  has  gone.  There 
is  no  more  in  our  temples  the  lowing  of  cattle, 
the  bleating  of  lambs,  no  more  the  drawn  knife, 
the  rivers  of  blood,  no  more  sacrificial  altars.  The 
priest  is  no  longer  an  offerer  of  sacrifice.  It  is  true 
that  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  a  few 
even  in  the  Protestant  Church,  believe  that  the 
sacrifice  is  a  perpetual  sacrifice,  and  must  be  offered 
Sabbath  after  Sabbath.  I  do  not  need  to  discuss 
the  question  here.  I  shall  assume  that  there  is  no 
longer  need  of  a  sacrifice  to  be  offered,  or  a  priest 
to  offer  it.  But  both  the  priestly  office  and  the 
prophetic  office  remain.  What  are  they  ?  I  call  a 
priest  one  whose  function  it  is  to  interpret  man  to 

1  Exodus  XX,  7. 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  183 

God  ;  I  caU  a  prophet  one  whose  function  it  is  to  in- 
terpret God  to  man  :  these  two  functions  constitute 
the  function  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  they  are 
needed  to-day  as  much  as  ever  they  were  needed. 

To  interpret  man  to  God  —  is  this  needed  ?  Has 
not  the  veil  of  the  temple  been  rent  ?  May  not  any 
one  enter  into  the  Holy  of  Holies  ?  Is  there  needed 
any  mediator  between  the  individual  soul  and  God  ? 
Is  it  not  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  our  religion 
that  every  soul  can  go  direct  to  God,  and  no  man 
need  ask  for  the  intervention  of  a  sacred  order? 
Yes,  this  is  all  true.  And  yet  we  men  and  women 
do  need  some  one  to  interpret  us  to  God,  because 
we  need  some  one  to  interpret  us  to  ourselves.  Let 
me  try  and  make  this  clear. 

What  does  a  painter  do  ?  He  sees  beauty  where 
you  and  I  would  fail  to  see  it ;  then  he  puts  the 
interpretation  of  that  beauty  upon  the  canvas,  and 
by  his  painting  he  not  only  interprets  nature  to  us, 
but  he  interprets  us  to  ourselves.  He  gives  us  new 
eyes ;  he  gives  us  a  new  sense,  a  new  perception  of 
beauty.  We  are  educated,  because  that  which  was 
deep  down  in  us  is  uncovered,  revealed,  opened  out 
to  us,  and  we  see  through  his  eyes,  because  he  with 
his  brush  has  spoken  to  us.  We  are  all  musicians. 
You  cannot  play  a  note ;  you  cannot  make  a  chord ; 
you  know  nothing  whatever  about  the  laws  of  har- 
mony. Nevertheless,  you  are  a  musician.  If  you 
were  not,  you  would  care  nothing  for  the  singing 
of  the  birds,  nothing  for  the  dance  music,  nothing 


184  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

for  the  churclL  choral  —  and  we  all  like  one  or  the 
other.  You  are  a  musician  though  you  cannot  com- 
pose music.  The  musician  who  creates  music  by 
his  fingers  or  by  his  voice,  interprets  the  music  to 
you,  and  interprets  you  to  yourself,  —  evokes  the 
music  in  you,  makes  you  hear  who  before  could  not 
hear,  makes  you  realize  what  before  you  could  not 
realize.  What  we  cannot  hear  the  musician  hears, 
though  there  is  no  music  played,  and  transcribes  on 
the  piano  what  he  has  heard  with  the  invisible  ear. 
You  and  I  lack  the  invisible  ear ;  but  the  man  who 
plays  on  the  piano  and  the  woman  who  sings,  create, 
the  one  with  her  voice,  the  other  with  the  instru- 
ment, the  hearing  ear,  and  we  are  interpreted  to 
ourselves,  and  find  that  we  are  musicians  though  we 
did  not  know  it.  So  we  are  all  poets,  though  most 
of  us  have  the  sense  not  to  try  to  write  rhymes. 
There  is  poetry  in  all  men,  and  we  take  our  Words- 
worth, our  Tennyson,  our  Browning,  our  Dante,  our 
village  poet  it  may  be,  and  there  is  something  in  that 
poetry  which  appeals  to  us,  evokes  something  we 
were  not  conscious  of.  Deep  down  below  our  visible 
self  there  is  a  hidden  seK,  and  the  poet  brings  that 
out,  and  when  he  speaks,  we  say,  "  Yes,  I  see  the 
beauty  which  I  saw  not  before." 

So  we  men  and  women,  weary  and  worn  or 
glad  and  joyous,  come  to  our  church  on  Sunday 
morning,  and  we  do  not  know  ourselves.  This  man 
has  sinned,  has  thrown  away  his  opportunities,  has 
violated  the  law  of  love,  has  been  selfish  with  his 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  185 

employers,  been  unfaithful  in  his  work,  been  cross 
with  his  wife,  been  unjust  with  his  children,  and 
he  does  not  know  it.  He  has  what  he  calls  "  the 
blues."  It  is  a  little,  secret,  uninterpreted,  unin- 
telligible remorse,  and  he  brings  it  with  him  to 
church.  By  his  side  there  sits  a  mother.  God  has 
reached  down  out  of  heaven  the  arms  of  his  love, 
and  has  taken  the  child  from  her  to  himself ;  she 
always  thought  she  believed  in  immortality,  and 
now  for  a  little  time  she  hardly  knows  whether  her 
babe  is  living  or  dead.  In  the  next  pew  is  a  young 
bride,  fuU  of  all  the  joy  of  love,  glad,  joyous, 
thankful,  and  yet  she  does  not  know  that  she  is 
thankful.  What  this  sinner  with  his  heart  bur- 
dened by  unconscious  remorse,  what  this  mother 
shadowed  by  a  half-scepticism,  what  this  bride  full 
of  a  glad,  uninterpreted  joyousness  desires,  is  some 
one  in  this  pulpit  to  interpret  themselves  to  them- 
selves, and  so  interpret  them  to  their  God.  What 
they  want  is  some  man  who  shall  so  say,  "  We  have 
erred  and  strayed  from  thy  ways  like  lost  sheep,"  ^ 
that  this  man  haK-conscious  of  his  guilt  shall  say 
to  himself,  "  That  is  it ;  I  have  so  erred ; "  who 
shaU  so  say,  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  2 
that  this  woman  who  cannot  see  the  truth  for  her 
tears  shall  wipe  them  away  and  say,  "  He  is ;  " 
shall  so  say,  "  We  give  thanks  to  thee,  thou  Giver 
of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,"  that  this  half- 
grateful  bride  shall  say,  "  My  love,  he  gave  it  to 
^  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  2  John  xi,  25. 


186  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

me."  The  minister  ought  to  be  an  artist,  a  musician, 
a  poet,  that  is,  a  priest.  He  ought  to  know  how  to 
interpret  the  unutterable  experiences  of  men,  first 
to  themselves,  and  then,  through  that  expression 
and  interpretation,  to  God.  This  not  because  God 
is  afar  off,  that  only  a  few  holy  men  can  approach 
him ;  but  because  men,  busy  with  the  toil  and  care 
of  life,  have  not  time  to  think,  or  suppose  that 
they  have  not  time,  and  perhaps  have  not  unaided 
the  ability,  to  think  themselves  out,  to  enter  into 
their  own  nature,  to  interpret  that  which  is  deepest 
and  best  in  them.  They  need  an  interpreter.  The 
Church  ought  to  be  a  place  where  we  come  to  lay 
all  our  burdens,  whether  of  sorrow,  of  sin,  of  duty, 
or  of  joy,  at  the  feet  of  our  Lord.  We  want  some 
man  to  lead  us  to  him  and  speak  for  us,  and  so 
teach  us  to  speak  for  ourselves. 

If  the  minister  is  to  fulfill  this  function  of  priest, 
if  he  is  to  interpret  the  people  to  God,  first  of  all  he 
must  imderstand  what  is  in  the  people.  It  is  said 
of  Christ  that  he  knew  what  was  in  men.  Every 
minister  ought  to  know  what  is  in  men.  We  need 
to  know  our  congregation  better  than  they  know 
themselves.  We  need  to  know  those  hidden  expe- 
riences which  they  conceal  from  one  another,  and 
which  they  conceal  from  themselves.  We  must  be 
able  to  see  the  soul  through  the  eye,  the  trembling 
of  the  voice,  the  very  silence ;  we  ought  to  be  able 
to  penetrate  their  mask  —  not  in  order  curiously  to 
discern  the  secrets  of  men,  but  to  help  their  needs, 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  187 

on  the  assumption  that  men  do  not  know  their  own 
deepest  selves,  and  require  some  one  to  interpret 
themselves  to  themselves,  and  so  to  interpret  them 
to  their  God. 

But  it  is  not  enough  for  the  minister  to  under- 
stand these  deep  experiences ;  he  must  learn  how 
to  carry  them  to  God.  How?  By  reading  devo- 
tional literature  ?  By  reading  prayers  ?  By  writing 
prayers  ?  That  has  only  to  do  with  the  mere  mecha- 
nism, that  is  the  mere  supplementary  work.  No 
minister  ever  leads  a  congregation  in  public  devo- 
tion who  is  not  accustomed  to  go  to  God  in  private 
prayer  with  that  congregation  in  his  heart.  When 
he  knows  what  his  people  are,  when  he  knows  who 
they  are,  when  he  knows  what  secret  life  they  hide 
in  this  masquerade  that  we  call  life,  when  he  has 
been  accustomed  daily  on  his  knees  in  his  closet 
to  carry  their  sorrows  and  burdens  to  his  Father,  — 
then  when  he  comes  into  the  church  he  will  find 
the  way  easy,  and  they  wiU  find  the  way  easy. 
Sometimes  we  come  to  church  and  our  minister 
addresses  to  us  an  eloquent  oration  which  he  calls 
a  prayer ;  sometimes  he  gives  us  a  lecture  on  the- 
ology which  he  calls  a  prayer ;  sometimes  he  nar- 
rates the  gossip  of  the  village,  which  he  calls  a 
prayer;  sometimes  he  gives  instructions  to  the 
Almighty  which  he  calls  a  prayer ;  and  when  he 
goes  stumbling  through  a  wood  that  he  has  never 
walked  in  before,  the  trees  not  even  blazed,  nor  the 
imderbrush  taken  away,  we  refuse  to  follow  him^ 


188  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and  our  thoughts  go  everywhither.  But  when  he 
comes  on  Sunday  bearing  our  burdens  on  his  heart, 
because  he  has  borne  them  all  the  week ;  when  he 
comes  ready  to  carry  them  to  the  Father  now,  be- 
cause he  has  carried  them  to  the  Father  all  the 
week ;  when  he  comes  walking  on  the  highway  his 
faith  has  made  plain  and  simple  for  him,  he  has 
made  the  pathway  for  us,  and  we  follow  where  he 
leads,  though  we  can  scarcely  creep. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  this 
volume  to  discuss  the  relative  advantages  of  litur- 
gical and  non-liturgical  services.  I  have  never 
been  able  to  see  why  the  two  forms  of  service 
should  be  regarded  as  mutually  exclusive.  Why 
should  not  the  liturgical  churches  encourage  the 
use  of  extemporaneous  prayers  without  discontinu- 
ing the  use  of  a  noble  liturgy  ?  Why  should  not 
the  non-liturgical  churches  encourage  the  use  of  a 
liturgy  without  abandoning  the  advantage  afforded 
by  extemporaneous  prayers?  That  there  are  ad- 
vantages in  both  the  liturgical  and  the  non-liturgical 
service  appears  to  the  unprejudiced  inquirer  beyond 
reasonable  question.  There  are  certain  spiritual 
experiences  which  are  constantly  repeated  and  which 
may  therefore  well  find  their  expression  in  forms 
constantly  used.  Such  are  the  experiences  of  re- 
pentance and  gratitude  expressed  in  the  General 
Confession  and  General  Thanksgiving  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  desires  in  which  every 
congregation  may  well    be  expected  to  unite  in 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  189 

every  Sunday  service  for  tlie  Nation  and  the 
Church.  There  is  a  distinct  advantage  in  a  common 
phraseology  for  the  expression  of  these  common 
experiences.  The  congregation  can  audibly  unite 
in  them.  Even  if  they  do  not  do  so,  they  are  not 
curious  to  see  what  new  phraseology  the  minister 
will  employ  to  express  the  life  which  he  expressed 
in  a  different  form  last  Sunday.  The  minister  is 
not  brought  under  pressure  to  vary  the  form  for 
the  expression  of  the  same  life.  Awkwardness  and 
infelicities  of  expression  are  avoided.  Forgetfulness 
never  intervenes  to  omit  from  the  service  those 
elements  of  spiritual  experience  which  ought  to  find 
utterance  on  every  occasion  of  public  worship.  The 
imagination  is  appealed  to  by  the  fact  that  on  the 
same  day  other  worshiping  assemblies  in  this  and 
other  lands  are  speaking  to  the  Father  of  the  same 
experience  and  in  the  same  words.  This  unity  of 
expression  both  emphasizes  and  promotes  that 
imity  of  life  which  is  the  root  out  of  which  alone 
true  church  unity  can  grow.  And  the  fact  that 
the  same  life  has  found  the  same  expression 
through  many  centuries  of  Christian  experience 
preserves  an  historic  unity  because  it  affords  a 
living  demonstration  that  the  life  of  God  in  the 
soul  of  man  is  essentially  the  same  despite  all 
changes  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion. Finally,  a  catholic  Church  (and  every  Chris- 
tian Church  should  seek  to  be  a  catholic  Church) 
ought  to  aim  to  provide  in  its  service  for  men  of 


190  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

every  temperament ;  and  in  our  Puritan  congrega- 
tions there  are  apparently  an  increasing  number 
who  share  the  opinion  which  Dr.  Rainsford  has  so 
well  expressed  in  his  autobiography : 

I  cannot  conceive  of  any  man,  whose  religious  life 
is  earnest,  who  does  not  find  himself  more  comforted 
and  uplifted  by  the  use  of  written  prayers,  especially 
when  he  has  a  collection  of  the  best  prayers  of  the  ages. 
Personally  I  find  more  rest  to  the  soul  and  more  ease 
of  worship  in  following  along  lines  which  we  know  per- 
fectly well  and  which  help  me  to  express  what  I  feel. 
To  the  educated  spiritual  consciousness  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  any  special  appeal  in  variety  of  extemporaneous 
prayers.  If  all  men  prayed  always  as  some  men  pray 
sometimes,  then  we  might  do  away  with  the  Liturgy ; 
but  they  do  not.^ 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  great  advantages  in 
extemporaneous  prayer.  There  frequently  occur  in 
the  parish  experiences  for  which  no  liturgy  can 
possibly  afford  adequate  expression  and  which  in  a 
Church  shut  up  to  a  liturgy  remain  unexpressed. 
This  truth  is  recognized  by  some  of  the  wisest  and 
most  devoted  adherents  of  a  liturgical  service.  Says 
Cannon  Liddon : 

Although  as  a  general  rule  it  is  wise  in  praying  with 
the  sick  and  poor  to  use  only  the  Church's  words,  there 
are  occasions  when  extempore  prayer  becomes  a  matter  of 
necessity.  It  is  impossible,  or  almost  so,  that  the  research 
of  the  parish  priest  should  have  been  able  to  anticipate 
every  variety  of  mental  and  moral  weakness  by  his  selec- 

1  William  S.  Rainsford :  A  Preacher's  Story  of  His  Work,  p.  146. 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  191 

tions  from  the  copious  stores  of  antiquity ;  and  the  risk 
of  using  general  language  when  there  is  need  of  pointed 
applicability  to  ar  particular  case  is  very  great.  A  soul 
must  be  led  to  God,  not  under  cover  of  a  general  for- 
mula, but,  as  she  is,  in  His  Presence.^ 

It  is  not  only  with  the  sick  and  poor  that  extem- 
pore prayer  becomes  a  necessity.  The  devout  min- 
ister who  is  accustomed  to  study,  not  merely  the 
social  and  ethical  conditions  of  his  parish,  but  its 
spiritual  life,  and  to  carry  the  needs  of  that  life  to 
God  in  petition,  or  the  amplitude  of  that  life  to 
God  in  thanksgiving,  to  whom,  in  short,  interces- 
sory prayer  is  the  continuous  experience  of  his  life, 
will  find  every  week  some  phases  of  life  in  his  con- 
gregation, not  purely  individualistic,  but  typical 
and  measurably  common,  to  which  he  will  wish  to 
give  expression  in  the  Sunday  service,  and  for 
which  no  research  can  find  expression  in  "  the 
stores  of  antiquity."  If  by  the  rule  of  his  Church 
or  by  his  own  habit,  he  is  denied  the  opportunity 
to  give  expression  in  extemporaneous  prayer  to 
such  experiences,  not  only  is  his  own  life  denied 
its  best  development,  but  his  congregation  also 
loses  that  inspiration  which  freedom  and  genuine- 
ness of  expression  always  affords.  In  such  cases 
even  the  liturgy  itself  is  in  danger  of  becoming 
lifeless.  The  danger  of  exclusive  use  of  forms  in 
public  devotion  is  a  resultant  tendency  to  for- 
malism.   Says  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  "  The  man 

1  H.  P.  Liddon:  Clerical  Life  and  Work,  p.  36. 


192  THE  CHKISTIAN  MINISTRY 

that  merely  comes  to  administer  ordinances  on 
Sundays  or  Saints'  Days,  who  goes  through  a  regu- 
lar routine,  is  nothing  but  an  engineer  who  runs  a 
machine."  ^  That  he  is  in  danger  of  becoming  such 
an  engineer  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church 
abundantly  demonstrates.  The  remedy  for  this 
peril  would  be  found  in  the  habitual  use  of  extem- 
poraneous and  spontaneous  prayer  to  supplement 
the  more  obvious  and  generic  expressions  of  spirit- 
ual life  furnished  by  the  historical  liturgy. 

And  this  suggests  the  second  advantage  in  the 
use  of  extemporaneous  prayer,  an  advantage  inti- 
mated by  Dr.  Eainsford  in  one  sentence  in  the 
paragraph  quoted  above:  "If  all  men  prayed  al- 
ways as  some  men  pray  sometimes."  The  Church 
ought  to  furnish  opportunity  for  the  some  men  to 
pray  as  they  can  sometimes.  It  ought  to  do  more ; 
it  ought  to  develop  in  its  ministry  this  power  of 
spontaneous  prayer.  It  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
the  Church  and  the  worshiping  congregation  has 
suffered  a  real  loss,  not  only  in  its  expression  of 
life  but  in  life  itseK,  because  such  men  as  Dr. 
Rainsford  and  Phillips  Brooks  have  been  trained 
not  to  lead  their  great  congregations  through  the 
medium  of  their  own  spontaneous  expression  of 
their  own  distinctive  yet  thoroughly  human  and 
catholic  spiritual  experience.  The  extemporaneous 
expression  of  that  experience  would  itself  have  in- 
spired a  like  experience  in  the  hearts  of  others.   If 

^  Henry  Ward  Beecher :  Lectures  on  Preaching,  i,  16, 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  193 

all  public  prayer  had  been  limited  to  those  fur- 
nished by  the  Church,  we  should  have  no  such  book 
of  devotions  s^  the  "  Prayers  of  the  Ages ; "  we 
should  not  have  the  prayer  of  Paul  for  his  friends 
and  companions  given  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Ephesians,  nor  the  intercessory  prayer  of  Jesus 
Christ  given  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John, 
nor,  indeed,  the  prayers  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer ;  for  these,  like  all  true  liturgies,  grew  out 
of  original  acts  of  free,  spontaneous  devotion.  What 
the  Church  and  the  ministry  loses  of  deep  spiritual 
experience  may  be  best  illustrated  by  a  single 
quotation  expressive  of  the  experience  of  one  min- 
ister, whose  spiritual  power  in  public  prayer  was 
no  less  than  his  more  widely  advertised  power  in 
public  speech.    Says  Henry  Ward  Beecher : 

I  can  bear  this  witness,  that  never  in  the  study,  in 
the  most  absorbed  moments;  never  on  the  street,  in 
those  chance  inspirations  that  everybody  is  subject  to, 
when  I  am  Uf ted  up  highest ;  never  in  any  company, 
where  friends  are  the  sweetest  and  dearest,  —  never  in 
any  circumstances  in  life  is  there  anything  that  is  to  me 
so  touching  as  when  I  stand,  in  ordinary  good  health, 
before  my  great  congregation  to  pray  for  them.  Hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  times,  as  I  rose  to  pray  and 
glanced  at  the  congregation,  I  could  not  keep  back  the 
tears.  There  came  to  my  mind  such  a  sense  of  their 
wants,  there  were  so  many  hidden  sorrows,  there  were 
80  many  weights  and  burdens,  there  were  so  many 
doubts,  there  were  so  many  states  of  weakness,  there 
were  so  many  dangers,  so  many  perils,  there  were  such 


194  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

histories,  —  not  world  histories,  but  eternal  world  his- 
tories, —  I  had  such  a  sense  of  compassion  for  them, 
my  soul  so  longed  for  them,  that  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  I 
could  scarcely  open  my  mouth  to  speak  for  them.  And 
when  I  take  my  people  and  carry  them  before  God  to 
plead  for  them^  I  never  plead  for  myself  as  I  do  for 
them,  —  I  never  could.  Indeed,  I  sometimes,  as  I  have 
said,  hardly  feel  as  if  I  had  anything  to  ask ;  but  oh, 
when  I  know  what  is  going  on  in  the  heart  of  my  peo- 
ple, and  I  am  permitted  to  stand  to  lead  them,  to  in- 
spire their  thought  and  feeling,  and  go  into  the  presence 
of  God,  there  is  no  time  that  Jesus  is  so  crowned  with 
glory  as  then !  There  is  no  time  that  I  ever  get  so  far 
into  heaven.  I  can  see  my  mother  there ;  I  see  again 
my  little  children ;  I  walk  again,  arm  in  arm  with  those 
who  have  been  my  companions  and  co-workers.  I  for- 
get the  body,  I  live  in  the  spirit ;  and  it  seems  as  if  God 
permitted  me  to  lay  my  hand  on  the  very  Tree  of  Life, 
and  to  shake  down  from  it  both  leaves  and  fruit  for  the 
healing  of  my  people !  ^ 

That  every  minister  can  attain  such  an  experi- 
ence as  that  here  described  is  not  to  be  expected ; 
but  every  minister  may  have  something  analogous 
to  it.  And  to  me  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  the 
exclusive  use  of  a  liturgy  should  produce  such  an 
experience,  and  as  Canon  Liddon  has  said,  in  the 
article  quoted  above,  no  liturgy  can  give  adequate 
expression  to  it. 

Whether  the  minister  uses  a  liturgy  or  extempore 
prayer  or  both,  he  must  be  a  priest,  that  is,  he  must 

1  Hexiry  Ward  Beecher :  Lectures  on  Preaching,  ii,  46, 47. 


THE   MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  195 

by  prayer  interpret  the  experiences  of  Lis  congre- 
gation both  to  themselves  and  to  God.  And  to  do 
this  he  must  understand  the  experiences  of  his  con- 
gregation by  sharing  those  experiences  with  them. 
Without  this  participation  in  their  spiritual  life  he 
can  be  no  true  priest ;  he  is  at  best  only  a  "  pray- 
ing machine."  He  may  think  he  uses  extempore 
prayers  and  yet  repeat  well-worn  phrases  Sunday 
after  Sunday,  using  devotional  forms  which  have 
all  the  disadvantages  and  none  of  the  advantages 
of  an  historic  liturgy.  He  may  every  Sunday  vio- 
late the  injunction  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  Use  not  vain 
repetitions,  as  the  heathen  do."  ^  In  that  case  his 
careless  prayers  wiU  be  a  weariness  to  his  congre- 
gation and  an  offense  to  God.  Or  he  may  study 
through  the  week  the  spiritual  life  of  his  commu- 
nity, he  may  habitually  carry  those  experiences  to 
God  in  intercessory  prayer  for  his  people,  his  expe- 
rience throughout  the  week  may  repeat  that  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  "  Without  ceasing  I  make  mention 
of  you  always  in  my  prayers  ; "  ^  in  which  case  his 
public  prayers  will  be  true  prayers,  not  iU-disguised 
addresses  to  his  congregation;  and  the  congrega- 
tion will  forget  to  be  critical  of  the  form  of  peti- 
tions when  those  petitions  reveal  to  themselves  the 
unknown  deeps  of  their  own  nature.  No  less  he 
may  be  a  mechanical  administrator  of  a  liturgy,  — 

1  Matt,  vi,  7. 

2  Rom.  i,  9;  comp.  Eph.  i,  16j    1  Thess.  i,  2;  2  Tim.  i,  3; 
Phile.  4. 


196  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

"  nothing  but  an  engineer  who  runs  a  machine  ;  " 
he  may  read  prayers  emptied  of  all  devotion, — 
prayers,  not  prayer,  hurrying  through  them  as 
though  the  sooner  ended  the  better  the  service.  Or 
he  may  pour  into  that  confession  of  sin,  that  prayer 
of  thanksgiving,  that  longing  for  national  weKare 
and  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  a  heart  surcharged 
with  all  the  spiritual  desires  of  the  ages.  And  as 
he  prays,  he  may  realize  that  a  congregation  greater 
than  any  man  can  number  are  joining  with  him  in 
these  expressions  of  penitence  and  gratitude  and 
spiritual  desire,  and  that  he  is  walking  with  them 
on  a  great  highway  weU  trodden  by  the  feet  of  the 
centuries. 

The  minister,  whether  offering  extemporaneous 
prayer  or  using  a  familiar  liturgy,  has  no  higher 
function  than  this  :  to  interpret  our  souls  to  our- 
selves and  so  express  to  God,  for  us  and  with  us, 
our  unexpressed  spiritual  experiences.  Jacob,  afraid 
of  his  brother's  just  wrath,  fled  away  from  the 
scene  of  his  sin,  and  laid  himself  down  to  sleep 
with  his  head  pillowed  on  the  stones,  careless  of 
his  cheated  father,  his  wronged  brother,  his  lonely 
mother,  his  offended  God ;  and  as  he  slept  he 
dreamed  ;  and  in  his  dreams  "  behold,  a  ladder  set 
up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven : 
and  behold,  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de- 
scending on  it."  And  when  he  waked,  of  his  pillow- 
stones  he  made  an  altar,  saying,  "  Surely  the  Lord 
is  in  this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not."  ^  Out  of  our 
1  Gen.  xxviii,  10-22. 


THE  MINISTER  AS  PRIEST  197 

petty  lives,  our  short-lived  triumplis,  our  discour- 
aging defeats,  our  embittered  enmities,  and  our 
disappointiQg  fiHendships,  out  of  our  sins  and  our 
sorrows,  forgetful  of  ourselves  and  of  our  God,  and 
in  spiritual  unconsciousness  of  what  we  have  done, 
and  who  we  are  and  what  our  needs,  we  come  to 
the  House  of  God ;  and  we  want  our  minister  to 
put  that  ladder  of  prayer  before  us  that  we  may 
see  it  and  may  see  the  God-inspired  prayers  as- 
cending and  the  God-given  answers  descending; 
and  when  at  last  the  strains  of  the  organ  die  away 
and  we  go  back  to  our  busy  lives,  the  words  upon 
our  lips  shall  be,  not,  "  What  an  eloquent  preacher 
we  heard  to-day !  "  but,  "  God  is  in  this  world,  and 
though  I  knew  it  not  I  know  it  now,  for  God's 
voice,  speaking  in  the  heart  of  the  great  congrega- 
tion and  in  my  own  heart,  has  been  interpreted  to 
me  by  his  priest." 


CHAPTER  VII 
QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRX 

Religion  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man, 
and  the  function  of  the  minister  is  to  impart  this 
life  to  the  individual  and  to  disseminate  this  life 
through  the  community.  He  cannot  impart  this 
life  to  the  individual  nor  disseminate  it  through  the 
community  unless  he  possesses  it  himself.  It  is  dif- 
ficult, perhaps  impossible,  to  define  this  life  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man.  But  Paul  has  described  its  fruits. 
"  The  fruit  of  the  spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suf- 
fering, gentleness,  serviceableness,  fidelity,  meekness, 
seK-control."  1  The  minister  cannot  impart  these 
virtues  to  others  unless  he  possesses  them  himself ; 
and  his  power  to  impart  them  wiU  be  in  the  ratio 
in  which  he  does  possess  them.  He  must  have  that 
companionship  with  the  Father  which  is  the  essence^ 
of  faith,  that  glad  expectation  for  the  race,  through 
the  redeeming  love  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  which 
is  the  essence  of  hope,  and  that  good-wiU  toward  aU 
men  of  every  condition  and  character,  which  is  the 
essence  of  love,  or  he  cannot  bring  other  men  into 
the  realization  of  this  hope  through  this  companion- 
ship with  the  Father.  He  need  not  necessarily  have 
1  Gal.  V,  22,  23. 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    199 

an  emotional  nature,  though  restrained  and  regu- 
lated emotion  will  add  to  his  power ;  he  need  not ; 
necessarily  possess  spiritual  vision,  though  imagina- 
tion inspired  by  devotion  and  guided  by  reason  will 
add  to  his  power ;  but  he  must  have  this  life  of  God 
in  his  own  soul  or  he  cannot  give  this  life  to  the 
souls  of  others. 

It  is  in  vain  for  him  to  attempt  to  deceive  him- 
seK  by  sedulously  cultivating  the  impression  that 
he  can  borrow  his  power  from  the  Bible  or  the 
Church  without  possessing  himself  that  life  which 
has  made  the  Bible  and  the  Church  powerful.  He 
cannot  even  interpret  the  Bible  without  some  pos- 
session of  that  experience  which  the  Bible  portrays. 
One  cannot  teach  geography  to  a  class  of  children 
if  he  does  not  know  what  the  sea  or  the  mountain 
is.  Words  are  but  symbols :  he  must  know  what 
these  symbols  stand  for  or  he  cannot  impart  the 
knowledge  to  the  pupil.  So  he  must  know  what  the 
words  in  the  Bible  stand  for.  He  cannot  interpret 
such  a  promise  as  this,  "  Who  forgiveth  all  thine 
iniquities,  who  healeth  aU  thy  diseases,  who  redeem- 
eth  thy  life  from  destruction,  who  crowneth  thee 
with  loving-kindness  and  tender  mercies,"  ^  unless 
he  knows  what  it  is  to  have  iniquity  forgiven,  dis- 
ease healed,  life  redeemed,  the  coronation  of  God's 
loving-kindness  and  tender  mercies.  Without  this 
knowledge  of  the  inward  experience,  his  repetition 
of  the  words  is  but  the  preaching  of  a  phonograph 

^  Psalm  ciii;  3,  4. 


200  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

or  a  parrot.  He  cannot  interpret  the  Cliurcli  unless 
he  has  that  spiritual  experience  which  has  bound 
the  Church  together  and,  despite  its  various  forms 
and  creeds,  has  made  it  truly  one.  The  minister  is 
not  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  —  he  is  one  of 
a  great  body  of  men  and  women  who  through  the 
ages  in  increasing  numbers  have  been  bearing  wit- 
ness to  the  Living  Christ  redeeming  the  world ;  he  is 
one  of  a  great  spiritual  apostolical  succession,  the 
succession  of  those  on  whom  Christ  has  breathed, 
to  whom  he  has  imparted  his  spirit,  and  on 
whom  he  has  laid  his  commission.  But  he  cannot 
witness  for  them  unless  he  shares  their  experience. 
No  theological  education,  no  laying  on  of  hands, 
will  suffice  to  make  the  minister  an  interpreter  of 
the  Church  unless  he  is  made  one  in  the  body  of 
Christ  by  that  Christian  experience  which  makes 
the  Church  one.  He  cannot,  for  example,  give  that 
Gospel  message  of  the  Church,  "  He  pardoneth  and 
absolveth  all  those  who  truly  repent  and  unfeign- 
edly  believe  his  holy  Gospel,"  ^  unless  he  knows 
what  it  is  truly  to  repent,  what  it  is  unfeignedly  to 
believe  the  Gospel,  and  what  it  is  to  feel  the  burden 
of  sin  lifted  from  his  shoulders  and  himself  set 
free.  Spiritual  experience  must  be  a  reality  to  the 
minister  if  he  would  interpret  truly  either  the  Bible 
or  the  Church ;  and  his  real  power  wiU  be  in  the 
ratio  of  the  reality  and  simplicity  of  this  spiritual 
experience.   This  is  what  Paul  means  by  the  de- 

*  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    201 

claration,  "  Let  us  prophesy  according  to  the  pro- 
portion of  faith ;  "  this  is  what  Christ  means  by  the 
promise,  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  ^ 

But  possessing  this  spiritual  power  is  not  alone  / 
enough :  the  minister  must  be  able  to  impart  it.  v 
He  cannot  impart  it  if  he  does  not  possess  it,  but 
he  may  possess  it  and  yet  be  unable  to  impart  it. 
His  constitution  and  temperament  may  be  such 
that  he  can  impart  it  only  incidentally,  by  his  life 
and  example;  he  may  be  without  power  to  give 
direct  verbal  effective  expression  to  it :  then  he  does 
not  belong  in  the  ministry.  Piety  or  godliness  is 
essential  to  success  in  the  Christian  ministry,  but 
piety  or  godliness  is  not  sufficient  for  the  Christian 
ministry  without  other  qualifications.  Is  it  possible 
to  analyze  this  ability  to  impart  life,  to  see  what 
are  the  elements  of  which  this  ability  is  composed  ? 
I  think  it  transcends  complete  analysis.  There  is 
something  mystical  in  what  we  call  sometimes  per- 
sonality, sometimes  magnetism.  It  is  in  no  small 
measure  a  gift,  gained,  acquired,  or  bestowed  we 
know  not  how.  But  it  is  possible  for  one  to  culti- 
'  vate  the  gift  that  is  in  him  ;  and  to  do  this  he  must 
at  least  endeavor  to  see  what  is  the  nature  of  this 
gift,  what  are  its  constituent  elements,  and  how  it 
can  be  cultivated. 

Essential  to  this  capacity  to  impart  spiritual  life 
is  a  clearly  marked,  well  defined,  eagerly  earnest  de- 
^  Rom.  xii,  6 ;  Acts  i,  8.    See  chap.  i. 


202  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

sire  to  impart  it.  For  success  in  the  Christian  min- 
istry the  minister  must  be  inspired  by  an  ambition 
to  make  men  sharers  of  his  life,  to  bring  men  into 
fellowship  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  take 
a  direct  personal  share  in  the  great  historic  move- 
ment for  the  world's  redemption,  to  transform  so- 
ciety by  the  impartation  of  the  Christ  spirit  into 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  minister  must  be  a 
messenger ;  he  must  be  an  apostle ;  he  must  have  an 
experience  which  enables  him  at  least  to  understand 
the  saying  of  Malachi,  that  the  priest  "  is  the  mes- 
senger of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  an  experience  which 
will  give  him  something  of  the  certitude  of  Paul, 
"  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  through  the 
will  of  God."  ^  It  is  this  experience  of  a  commission 
received  to  be  fulfilled,  of  a  message  received  to  be 
delivered,  of  a  life  received  to  be  imparted,  which 
distinguishes  the  preacher  from  the  mere  teacher.^ 
No  man  can  go  to  a  theological  seminary  and 
get  from  that  seminary  a  theological  system,  or  an 
understanding  of  the  Bible  in  its  literary  and  ethi- 
cal and  theological  aspects,  and  then  go  out  and 
impart  to  men  what  the  seminary  has  imparted  to 
him,  and  expect  success.  He  cannot  purchase  from ' 
the  seminary,  as  from  a  jobbing-house,  the  goods 
which  afterwards  he  will  deliver  to  his  congregation 
as  a  retailer.  This  is,  indeed,  in  a  measure  true  of 
all  education.    We  call  a  doctor,  not  to  tell  us  what 

1  Mai.  ii,  7;  1  Cor.  i,  1 ;  Rom.  i,  1. 

2  See  chap,  iv,  pp.  114-118. 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    203 

he  has  learned  of  anatomy,  but  to  set  the  broken, 
bone  ;  the  lawyer,  not  to  teU  us  what  he  has  learned 
concerning  contracts,  but  to  draw  for  us  a  contract 
which  will  stand  the  test  of  time.  So  we  go  to  the 
minister,  not  to  learn  what  he  knows  about  the 
Bible,  or  what  he  knows  about  theology,  but  to 
receive  from  him  a  ministry  of  life,  a  healing  for  a 
broken  heai-t,  or  a  bond  of  union  with  our  fellow 
men  which  will  stand  the  test  of  life's  temptations. 
This  impulse  or  purpose  in  the  minister  must  be  an 
interior  impulse.  It  may  be  awakened  by  influence 
from  without,  but  no  influence  from  without  can 
take  its  place.  For  this  reason  I  am  more  than 
doubtful  about  the  wisdom  of  addresses  to  young 
men  in  coUege  urging  upon  them  the  duty  of  enter-  j 
ing  the  ministry,  or  influences  by  father  and  mother  ; 
to  send  them  into  the  ministerial  profession.  I  would 
rather  put  obstacles  in  their  way  than  clear  the  way 
of  obstacles.  I  would  rather  repeat  to  them  Christ's 
warning  to  his  disciples :  "  The  servant  is  not  greater 
than  his  Lord.  If  they  have  persecuted  me,  they  will 
also  persecute  you."  I  would  rather  bid  them  ponder 
the  question  which  Christ  put  to  James  and  John  : 
"  Are  ye  able  to  drink  of  the  cup  that  I  shall  drink 
of,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  that  I  am 
baptized  with  ?  "  ^  I  am  inclined  to  say,  even  at  the 
hazard  of  being  misunderstood,  that  no  man  should 
go  into  the  ministry  if  he  can  satisfy  his  own  con- 
science and  his  own  heart  in  any  other  vocation. 

1  John  XV,  20 ;  Matt,  x,  24,  25  ;  xx,  22. 


204  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

This  object,  to  give  to  the  world  the  message 
which  has  been  given  to  him,  to  impart  to  the 
world  the  life  which  has  been  imparted  to  him,  if 
it  be  real  and  vital,  not  fictitious  and  assumed,  wiU 
affect  all  his  life.  He  will  be  a  minister  of  the 
life  of  God,  a  messenger  preparing  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  an  apostle  by  the  wiU  of  God  wherever  he 
goes.  He  will  not  put  on  the  ministerial  character 
with  his  robe  or  his  frock  coat  when  he  goes  into 
the  pulpit  and  lay  it  off  when  he  comes  out.  He 
wiU  be  possessed  by  a  divine  enthusiasm,  which  will 
color  all  his  thinking,  inspire  all  his  action,  and  di- 
rect and  determine  all  his  life.  As  executive  head 
of  a  working  church,  he  will  direct  its  activities,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  building  up  a  great  organization, 
but  for  the  purpose  of  building  up  the  Kingdom  of 
God ;  as  pastor,  he  will  not  be  a  merely  social  caUer 
and  talker  of  small  talk,  he  will  carry  the  spirit  of 
faith  and  hope  and  love  with  him  into  every  home 
he  enters,  the  benediction  of  his  presence  will  mean 
immeasurably  more  than  the  formal  benediction 
which  he  pronounces  at  the  close  of  the  church  ser- 
vice, and  his  preaching  wiU  derive  its  power  from 
this  identification  of  his  official  message  with  his 
daily  life,  and  the  witness  of  his  daily  life  to  the 
tnith  and  reality  of  his  message.  Says  the  Rev. 
J.  E.  C.  WeUdon : 

In  sermons  personality  is  everything.  It  is  not  so 
much  what  the  preacher  says  as  what  he  is  that  makes 
his  sermon.   Personality,  it  is  true,  may  affect  preach- 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    205 

ing  in  more  ways  than  one.  A  village  priest,  let  me 
suppose,  has  lived  many  years  among  his  people;  his 
home  is  theirs,  his  interests  are  theirs ;  he  has  baptized 
the  children  of  the  village  and  seen  them  grow  up,  he 
has  married  them,  and  some  of  them  he  has  laid  in  the 
grave ;  there  is  not  a  family  whose  history  he  does  not 
know,  there  is  not  a  cottage  within  whose  walls  he  is 
not  a  welcome  and  frequent  visitor ;  he  has  shared  his 
people's  hopes  and  fears,  their  joys  and  sorrows ;  he  has 
been  the  recipient  of  their  confidences,  he  is  their  neigh- 
bor, their  adviser,  their  friend ;  he  has  exemplified  in 
his  rectory  or  vicarage  what  Coleridge  calls  "the  one 
idyll  of  English  life."  How  is  it  possible  that  they 
should  distinguish  his  sermon  from  his  life  ?  It  comes 
to  them  fraught  with  a  thousand  memories  of  kindness 
and  sympathy  and  help  in  hours  of  need.  Such  a  man's 
life  is  his  sermon  ;  his  sermon  is  his  Hf e.  When  he  en- 
ters the  pulpit  the  congregation  who  listen  to  him  care 
not  to  ask  if  he  is  eloquent  or  forcible  in  his  preaching. 
It  is  enough  that  he  is  their  well-known,  long-tried  pastor, 
and  his  sermons  are  stamped  with  the  indelible  impression 
of  his  ministry.  Because  this  is  so,  it  would  undoubtedly 
prove  a  loss  to  take  away  the  right  of  preaching  from 
the  parochial  clergy  and  confine  it  to  certain  preaching 
orders.  Whether  these  clergy  preach  well  or  ill,  nobody 
can  preach  to  their  congregations  so  well  as  they.^ 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  am  not  urging 
that  the  minister  should  never  forget  that  he  is  a 
minister ;  I  would  rather  say  that  he  should  never 
remember   that   he   is   one.    Self-consciousness  is 

^  J.  E.  C.  Welldon :  Nineteenth  Century  and  After.  Reprinted 
in  The  Living  Age,  Oct.  29, 1904. 


206  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

perilous  to  success  in  any  profession ;  nowhere  is  it 
y^  so  perilous  to  success  as  in  the  ministerial  profes- 
sion. The  bane  of  the  pulpit  is  professionalism,  — 
not  hypocrisy,  not  deliberate  false  pretense,  but  the 
saying  of  a  thing  because  it  ought  to  be  said,  not 
because  the  heart  prompts  the  speaker  to  say  it. 
The  minister  should  never  be  professional,  —  neither 
in  the  pulpit  nor  out  of  it.  But  he  should  not  be  a 
minister  at  all  unless  his  whole  nature,  his  execu- 
tive ability,  his  social  sympathies,  his  intellectual 
processes,  his  aesthetic  tastes,  his  imagination,  his 
ambition,  his  affections,  are  all  pervaded  by  the 
spirit  which  rejoices  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Great 
Companion,  made  companionable  to  him  through 
Jesus  Christ,  and  by  an  overmastering  desire  to 
impart  this  companionship,  and  the  life  which  it 
brings,  to  his  fellow  men. 

This  passion  to  impart  to  the  men  about  him  the 
life  of  God  will  make  him  a  living  man  among  liv- 
ing men.  It  will  make  him  share  the  spirit,  sym- 
pathize with  the  thinking,  talk  the  language  of  the 
twentieth  century.  He  may  hold  to  the  old  the- 
ology or  to  a  new  theology,  but  whatever  instru- 
ment he  uses,  he  will  use  it  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  the  truth  of  God  into  the  life  of  his  own 
time,  and  he  wiU  speak  to  his  own  age  and  genera- 
tion. He  will  understand  the  problems  of  his  own 
time,  spiritual,  ethical,  social,  political,  and  will 
deal  with  them  ;  not  becausjB  they  are  problems,  but 
because  they  are  part  of  the  life  of  living  men  and 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    207 

women.  In  this  respect  he  wiU  follow  the  example 
which  is  set  for  him  by  the  biblical  writers.  The 
Bible  is  a  book' for  all  time,  because  every  writer 
in  it  wrote  for  his  own  time,  —  Moses  for  a  people 
just  emancipated  from  slavery,  Isaiah  for  a  people 
threatened  with  dire  punishment  for  aggravated 
sins,  Ezekiel  for  a  people  in  captivity,  Paul  for  a 
people  that  were  passing  out  of  Hebrew  into  Greek 
life.  Every  one  of  its  writers  ministered  to  his  own 
age,  and  therefore  to  aU  ages. 

This  passion  for  men  wiU  also  make  the  minister 
a  minister  to  his  own  congregation.  He  wiU  study 
their  wants  and  seek  to  understand  their  lives,  that 
he  may  minister  to  them.  If  he  is  preaching  to  a 
commercial  congregation,  ignorant  of  and  indiffer- 
ent to  the  intellectual  perplexities  of  the  scholastic 
community,  he  will  not  preach  on  Herbert  Spencer 
and  Evolution ;  he  will  not  give  to  Corinth  the  ser- 
mon which  last  year  he  preached  at  Athens.  If  he 
is  preaching  to  a  radical  congregation,  whose  whole 
idea  of  religion  is  summed  up  in  the  Golden  Rule, 
he  will  study  how  he  can  effect  in  them  a  simple, 
unaffected,  and  sincere  piety.  If  he  is  preaching  to 
a  devout  congregation,  whose  religion  has  chiefly 
consisted  in  prayer  and  praise,  and  who  have  never 
brought  their  religious  reverence  to  bear  on  the 
common  affairs  of  life,  he  will  study  how  he  can 
make  them  see  that  to  obey  is  better  than  sacri- 
fice, that  to  do  the  will  of  Christ  in  daily  life  is 
better  than  to  say  to  him,  "  Lord,  Lord." 


208  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

This  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  while  giving  pur- 
pose and  direction  to  the  whole  life,  wiU  give  dis- 
tinctive character  to  each  sermon.  The  first  con- 
dition of  an  effective  sermon  is  a  definite  object. 
Mark  the  difference  between  subject  and  object. 
In  preparing  a  sermon  the  minister  should  define 
his  object  in  his  own  mind  before  he  select  either 
his  subject  or  his  text.  What  do  I  want  to  accom- 
plish this  Simday  morning,  in  this  congregation, 
with  this  discourse  ?  This  is  the  first  question  for 
the  preacher  to  ask  himself.  When  a  lawyer  goes 
before  a  jury,  it  is  not  in  order  to  give  them  a  lec- 
ture on  justice,  but  to  win  from  them  a  verdict  for 
his  client.  When  a  public  speaker  goes  before  an 
audience  in  a  political  campaign,  it  is  not  to  instruct 
them  upon  the  general  question  of  the  tariff,  —  it 
is  to  get  votes  for  the  Eepublican  or  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate.  The  minister  should  learn  a  les- 
son from  the  lawyer  and  the  political  speaker.  He 
should  regard  his  congregation  as  a  jury  whose 
verdict  he  seeks  to  secure,  as  citizens  whose  vote 
he  is  determined  to  obtain.  Psychologically  speak- 
ing, he  should  address  himself  to  the  will,  as  the 
citadel  of  the  character,  and  count  no  sermon  a 
success  which  does  not  at  least  aim  to  achieve 
either  some  new  resolution  or  some  strengthening 
of  a  good  resolution  already  formed.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone has  put  this  principle  very  clearly  in  a  con- 
trast which  he  draws  between  English  and  Italian 
preaching : 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    209 

The  fundamental  distinction  between  English  and 
Italian  preaching  is,  I  think,  this  :  The  mind  of  the  Eng- 
lish preacher,  or  reader  of  sermons,  however  impressive, 
is  fixed  mainly  upon  his  composition,  that  of  the  Italian 
on  his  hearers.  The  Italian  is  a  man  applying  himself 
by  his  rational  and  persuasive  organs  to  men,  in  order  to 
move  them ;  the  former  is  a  man  applying  himself,  with 
his  best  ability  in  many  cases,  to  a  fixed  form  of  matter, 
in  order  to  make  it  move  those  whom  he  addresses.  The 
action  in  the  one  case  is  warm,  living,  direct,  immediate, 
from  heart  to  heart ;  in  the  other  it  is  transfused  through 
a  medium  comparatively  torpid.  The  first  is  surely  far 
superior  to  the  second  in  truth  and  reality.  The  preacher 
bears  an  awful  message.  Such  messengers,  if  sent  with 
authority,  are  too  much  identified  with,  and  possessed 
by,  that  which  they  carry,  to  view  it  objectively  during 
its  delivery,  —  it  absorbs  their  very  being  and  all  its 
energies ;  they  are  their  message,  and  they  see  nothing 
extrinsic  to  themselves  except  those  to  whoSe  hearts  they 
desire  to  bring  it.  In  truth,  what  we  want  is  the  follow- 
ing of  nature,  and  her  genial  development.^ 

It  is  this  definiteness  of  object  which  distinguishes 
the  sermon  from  the  essay,  and  which  makes  some 
pulpit  addresses  which  would  be  interesting  essays, 
hopelessly  ineffective  as  sermons.  Some  years  ago  I 
heard  a  sermon  on  Methuselah.  The  preacher  ex- 
plained to  us  that  Methuselah  lived  for  969  years, 
and  then  he  proceeded  to  tell  us  how  much  Methu- 
selah would  have  seen  if  he  had  come  to  the  end  of 
his  life  the  year  in  which  the  preacher  was  preaching 
his  sermon.    With  this  as  his  thread,  the  preacher 

1  Quoted  by  John  Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  i,  174. 


210  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

gave  us  a  pictorial  history  of  the  English  people 
from  about  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great  to  the 
present  day.  As  an  essay  it  might  have  been  charm- 
ing, but  cui  bono  f  It  did  nothing  to  help  the  men 
and  women  before  him  to  live  better  lives.  As  a 
sermon  it  was  worthless.  A  friend  some  years  ago 
attending  service  with  her  brother,  who  was  in  a 
large  boarding-school,  had  her  attention  called  by 
him  to  the  congregation  to  which  the  minister  was 
preaching.  There  were  fifty  or  sixty  boys  from  ten 
to  fifteen  years  of  age,  the  rest  of  the  congregation 
was  made  up  of  fathers,  mothers,  grandfathers,  and 
grandmothers ;  and  the  minister  was  preaching  — 
on  how  to  select  a  wife.  The  subject  had  probably 
been  suggested  to  him  either  by  some  book  which  he 
had  read  or  some  experience  which  he  was  approach- 
ing ;  but  it  did  not  concern  his  congregation.  The 
sermon  was  an  aimless  sermon;  and  an  aimless 
sermon  is  always  a  useless  sermon. 

This  is  the  fatal  defect  with  what  I  may  call 
pretty  sermons,  sermons  which  are  literary  essays, 
sermons  which  are  the  product  of  the  minister's 
consciousness  that  he  has  to  preach  next  Sunday 
and  therefore  must  "get  up  a  sermon."  Under 
this  pressure,  he  takes  from  the  Bible  as  his  text, 
"His  righteousness  is  like  the  great  mountains." 
Then  he  takes  down  Michelet  and  reads  for  an  hour 
on  the  mountains.  Next  he  gets  out  his  cyclopedia 
of  illustrations,  to  find  some  bits  of  classic  prose, 
or  fine  poetry,  about  the  mountains.  Then  he  begins 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    211 

to  write  his  sermon.  The  mountains  are  strong: 
God's  righteousness  is  strong.  The  mountains  are 
high :  God's  righteousness  is  exalted  above  the  plane 
of  ordinary  human  righteousness.  The  mountains 
are  white  and  pure  ;  God's  righteousness  is  always 
pure  and  unsullied.  The  mountains  supply  the 
valleys  with  water :  God's  righteousness  is  a  feed- 
ing, watering,  life-giving  righteousness.  Under  each 
head  of  this  discourse  he  works  in  a  bit  of  poetry 
from  his  dictionary  of  poetical  quotations ;  and  his 
sermon  is  done.  It  is  a  pretty  bit  of  literature, 
but  it  is  preached  with  a  fictitious  earnestness  and 
listened  to  with  a  languid  interest.  This  is  one  way 
to  make  a  sermon.  His  neighbor  sees  in  imagina- 
tion his  congregation  before  him.  He  has  entered 
into  their  life,  he  realizes  their  temptations,  he  sees 
that  their  great  need  is  a  new  inspiration  to  right- 
eousness, righteousness  like  that  of  God,  —  strong, 
high,  pure,  life-giving.  Their  life  depends  upon 
their  possession  of  this  righteousness  —  Hfe  here, 
life  hereafter.  What  can  he  do  to  impart  something 
of  this  life-giving  righteousness  to  them?  This  is 
the  problem  which  confronts  him  and  with  which 
he  wrestles ;  and  if  he  goes  to  Michelet,  or  to  his 
dictionary  of  poetical  quotations,  or  to  his  Bible, 
it  is  not  for  a  subject,  it  is  for  the  material  which 
wiU  enable  him  better  to  confer  on  a  people  whom 
he  loves  the  power  which  they  need. 

If  the  sermon  has  this  fundamental  quality,  if  it 
is  bom  of  an  intense  faith  in  the  truth  of  God,  and 


212  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

an  intense  sympathy  for  men  who  need  that  truth 
as  an  equipment  for  their  own  life,  it  will  have  two 
other  qualities,  —  life  and  brevity.  A  sermon  should 
never  be  a  lake,  it  should  be  a  river ;  it  should  have 
movement;  a  terminus  a  quo^  and  a  terminus  ad 
queni.  If  the  minister  in  preparing  his  sermon  has  a 
definite  object  in  view,  all  his  thinking  will  naturally 
concentrate  itself  on  the  accomplishment  of  that 
object,  and  the  sermon  will  move  with  increasing 
power  toward  the  ultimate,  and  by  the  preacher 
before-perceived,  result.  This  quality  of  life,  or 
movement,  is  more  than  mere  logical  continuity.  In 
a  chain,  each  link  depends  upon  and  is  fastened 
into  the  preceding  link,  but  the  last  link  does  not 
differ  in  size  from  those  which  preceded  it ;  but 
each  contributing  stream  adds  to  the  volume  and 
force  of  the  river.  The  sermon  should  be  a  river, 
not  a  chain.  It  should  be  so  constructed  that  every 
new  thought  should  not  only  conduct  to  the  ultimate 
conclusion,  but  should  reinforce  the  considerations 
previously  educed  :  for  the  object  of  the  sermon  is 
not  merely  to  convince  the  understanding,  it  is  to 
transform  life  ;  and  its  value  depends,  therefore,  not 
merely  upon  its  logical  completeness,  but  upon  its 
reinforcing  power.  The  object  of  the  sermon  on 
sin  is  not  to  convince  the  congregation  of  the  generic 
fact  of  human  sinfulness,  —  it  is  to  lead  each  man 
in  the  congregation  to  cry  out,  "  God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner  I  "  The  sermon  on  the  forgiving  love 
of  God  has  for  its  object,  not  merely  to  convince 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    213 

the  congregation  that  God  does  forgive  sin,  but 
to  lead  each  burdened  soul  in  the  congregation  to 
come  to  God  for  forgiveness ;  and  the  whole  sermon 
from  its  opening  text  to  its  last  sentence  should  be 
shaped  and  fashioned  for  this  purpose.  The  perora- 
tion, so  called,  should  be  the  natural  consummation 
of  a  discourse  which  in  every  paragraph  grows 
wider  and  deeper  and  more  forceful  to  the  end. 

And  this  quality  of  vitality  imparted  by  definite- 
ness  of  spiritual  purpose  will  prevent  the  preacher 
from  imposing  on  the  patience  of  his  hearers.  How 
long  should  a  sermon  be  ?  This  is  like  asking  how 
large  should  a  gateway  be.  The  size  demanded  of 
the  gateway  depends  on  the  size  of  the  load  to  be 
carried  through ;  the  length  of  the  sermon  depends 
on  the  largeness  of  the  idea  of  which  it  is  a  vehicle. 
People  do  not  object  to  long  sermons,  they  object 
to  lengthy  sermons.  If  what  the  minister  wants  to 
say  can  be  said  in  three  minutes,  the  sermon  is  too 
long  if  it  takes  four  minutes.  If  the  minister  is 
full  of  a  theme  which  for  its  adequate  presentation 
would  require  an  hour,  the  sermon  seems  short  if 
it  occupies  forty-five  minutes.  There  is,  however, 
an  important  fact  which  the  modern  minister  should 
realize,  but  does  not  always, — the  change  which  has 
been  produced  within  the  last  twenty-five  years  by 
the  telegraph  and  the  newspaper.  Men  think  much 
more  quickly  than  they  used  to  think.  Contracts 
which  they  would  take  hours  to  talk  over,  they  now 
complete,  save  for  the  legal  phrasing,  in  five  min- 


214  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

utes.  They  read  the  daily  newspaper  by  the  head- 
lines, or,  glancing  the  eye  down  the  column  of  the 
editorial,  extract  its  significance  by  a  kind  of  instan- 
taneous intellectual  process.  Accustomed  to  this 
rapidity  of  mental  action  through  the  week,  they 
go  to  church,  and  are  wearied  by  hearing  a  minis- 
ter hold  a  single  thought  before  them,  possibly  a 
rather  commonplace  thought,  for  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes,  or  even  half  an  hour,  while  he  is  hoping 
to  keep  their  attention  upon  it  by  the  beauty  with 
which  he  attires  it,  or  even  insisting  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  hearer  to  continue  to  listen  after  he 
has  learned  all  that  the  minister  has  to  say.  To  an 
alert  mind  nothing  is  more  wearisome  than  to  stand 
at  the  end  of  a  lane  and  wait  for  the  speaker  to 
come  at  a  leisurely  pace  to  the  same  terminus. 
The  editor  is  under  pressure  to  condense:  he  is 
constantly  attempting  to  put  the  substance  of  a 
volume  in  a  page,  the  substance  of  a  page  in  a 
column,  the  substance  of  a  column  in  a  paragraph, 
and  the  substance  of  a  paragraph  in  two  lines ;  the 
minister,  on  the  other  hand,  is  often  imder  tempta- 
tion to  dilute  and  expand :  he  has  a  single  thought, 
and  his  question  is,  how  can  he  so  present  this 
thought  as  to  keep  the  interest  of  the  congregation 
for  twenty  minutes  or  half  an  hour  upon  it  ?  There 
is  but  one  radical  remedy  for  lengthy  sermons :  it  is 
for  the  minister,  first,  to  be  possessed  of  the  truth, 
and  of  the  desire  to  impart  it  to  his  congregation 
because  they  need  it,  and,  secondly,  remorselessly 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    215 

to  fix  as  Ms  limit  less  time  than  he  thinks  is 
adequate  for  the  due  presentation  of  his  subject. 

There  is  a  special  temptation  to  ministers  to 
over-elaborate  the  peroration  and  the  introduction. 
A  friend  of  mine  tells  me  that  he  once  heard  a 
famous  preacher  say  as  he  drew  towards  the  close 
of  his  discourse,  "  One  word  more."  My  friend 
looked  at  his  watch ;  the  preacher  had  been  speak- 
ing thirty  minutes,  and  he  took  thirty-five  minutes 
for  the  "  one  word  more."  In  my  judgment,  the 
time  for  exhortation  has  passed  away,  —  the  whole 
sermon  should  be  suffused  with  a  genuine  feeling ; 
it  may  be  inflamed  with  a  genuine  passion  ;  if  it  is 
not,  no  endeavor  to  correct  the  defect  by  emotional 
appeals  at  the  end  wiU.  be  other  than  worse  than 
useless.  As  to  introductions,  generally  the  less  in- 
troduction the  better.  The  whole  service  of  prayer 
and  praise  and  Scripture  reading  has  been  intro- 
duction ;  that  is,  it  has  been  preparing  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  congregation  for  the  message  of  the 
preacher.  He  who  strikes  the  heart  of  his  subject 
in  the  first  sentence  is  the  one  most  likely  to  secure 
an  attentive  listening  at  the  outset  of  his  discourse. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  this 
volume  to  enter  in  any  detail  upon  the  question  of 
the  structure  of  sermons.  For  this  the  ministerial 
reader  must  be  referred  to  the  books  on  sacred 
rhetoric,  of  which  there  is  an  abundance  ;  but  it  is 
legitimate  to  say  that  devotion  to  the  truth  and 
sympathy  with  men  furnish  no  excuse  for  slovenly 


216  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

intellectual  processes  and  no  substitute  for  thor- 
ough intellectual  preparation.  Whether  the  sermon 
is  written  and  committed,  written  and  read,  or  not 
written  at  all,  it  ought  to  be  carefuUy  conceived 
and  thoroughly  prepared.  Whenever  we  are  able 
to  get  back  of  the  finished  oration  to  the  processes 
of  preparation,  we  always  find  that  the  latter  have 
involved  painstaking  study.  The  apparently  easy 
speaker  is  uniformly  a  hard  thinker.  Spontaneity 
in  utterance  is  the  product  of  industry  in  prepara- 
tion. Mr.  Gladstone  was  endowed  by  nature  with 
all  the  equipment  necessary  for  successful  oratory, 
"a  voice  of  singular  fullness,  depth,  and  variety 
of  tone ;  a  falcon  eye  with  strange  imperious  flash ; 
features  mobile,  expressive,  and  with  lively  play; 
a  great  actor's  command  of  gesture,  bold,  sweeping, 
natural,  unforced,  without  exaggeration  or  a  trace 
of  melodrama ;  .  .  .  the  gift  and  the  glory  of 
words  "  —  but  to  these  he  "  superadded  ungrudging 
labor."  Here  are  his  counsels  to  a  correspondent, 
evidently  bom  of  his  own  experience : 

1.  Study  plainness  of  language,  always  preferring 
the  simpler  word.  2.  Shortness  of  sentences.  3.  Dis- 
tinctness of  articulation.  4.  Test  and  question  your  own 
arguments  beforehand,  not  waiting  for  critic  or  opponent. 
5.  Seek  a  thorough  digestion  of,  and  familiarity  with, 
your  subject,  and  rely  mainly  on  these  to  prompt  the 
proper  words.  6.  Remember  that  if  you  are  to  sway  an 
audience  you  must,  besides  thinking  out  your  matter, 
watch  them  all  along.     (March  20,  1875.)  ^ 

*  John  Morley:  Life  of  Gladstone,  i,  191, 192. 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    217 

If  ever  the  term  "  full  man "  could  be  applied 
to  any  preacher,  it  could  be  applied  to  PhiUips 
Brooks.  His  sermon  seemed  to  be  —  and  was  — 
the  spontaneous  expression  of  a  superabundant 
life  ;  wealth  of  vocabulary,  of  illustration,  of  expo- 
sition were  the  instruments,  and  spiritual  enthu- 
siasm was  the  secret  of  his  marvelous  power. 
But  Dr.  Allen,  in  the  account  of  Phillips  Brooks's 
method  of  preparation,  has  made  it  very  clear 
that  the  great  preacher  did  not  trust  to  these 
native  gifts  alone,  —  he  directed  all  the  forces  of 
his  nature  with  careful  guidance  to  a  purposed 
end. 

He  took  half  a  sheet  of  sermon  paper,  folding  it 
once,  thus  making  four  small  pages,  some  seven  inches 
by  less  than  five  in  their  dimensions,  which  he  was  to 
fill.  He  invariably  filled  them  out  to  the  last  remaining 
space  on  the  last  page,  as  though  only  in  this  way  could 
he  be  sure  that  he  had  sufficient  material  for  his  sermon. 
Each  plan  contained,  when  it  was  finished,  a  dozen  or 
more  detached  paragraphs,  each  of  which  contained  a 
distinct  idea,  and  was  to  become,  when  expanded,  a  par- 
agraph in  the  finished  sermon,  placing  over  against  each 
the  number  of  pages  it  would  occupy  when  it  had  been 
amplified.  Then  he  added  the  numbers  together.  Thirty 
pages  was  the  limit  of  the  written  sermon.  If  these 
numbers  of  assigned  pages  fell  short  of  thirty,  he  re- 
viewed his  plan  to  see  where  he  might  expand,  or  where 
to  reduce  if  he  had  too  many.^ 

1  Condensed  from  Dr.  A.  V.  G.  Allen*s  account  in  The 
Life  and  Letters  of  Phillips  Brooks^  and  quoted  on  page  718  of 
The  Oatlooh  for  March  10,  1901. 


218  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

More  important  than  the  quality  of  the  sermon 
is  the  quality  of  the  preacher,  for  the  sermon  is  an 
expression  of  the  life  of  the  preacher,  and  therefore 
the  value  of  the  sermon  depends  upon  the  quality 
of  the  preacher's  life.  There  is  a  legend  that  a 
famous  preacher,  having  been  unable  to  make  his 
preparations  for  a  certain  Sunday,  asked  the  Devil 
to  provide  a  preacher  for  him.  The  Devil  replied, 
"  I  will  preach  myself,"  and  he  went  into  the  pul- 
pit and  preached  a  vigorous  and  eloquent  sermon 
against  the  Devil  and  all  his  works.  When  he  came 
down,  his  ecclesiastical  ally  said  to  him,  "  I  should 
have  thought  you  would  have  been  afraid  to  preach 
that  sermon,  lest  it  should  destroy  your  influence." 
"  No,"  replied  the  Devil,  "  it  will  have  no  effect, 
because  I  did  not  believe  a  word  of  it  myself." 
Like  many  another  ecclesiastical  legend,  this  is  a 
parabolic  expression  of  a  divine  truth.  The  power 
of  the  sermon  depends  primarily  on  the  reality  of 
the  minister's  conviction.  It  is  not  enough  that  he 
preach  the  truth,  he  must  preach  self-realized  truth. 
He  should  never  be  an  echo  of  another  man's 
faith.  If  he  has  no  experience  of  sin,  he  should  not 
preach  on  sin  ;  if  no  experience  of  God's  love,  he 
should  not  preach  on  God's  love.  If  all  ministers 
limited  their  preaching  by  their  own  experience, 
the  sermons  would  be  shorter  and  there  would  be 
fewer  of  them,  but  they  would  make  up  in  effec- 
tiveness what  they  lacked  in  number  and  in  length. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  object  to  creed  subscrip- 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    219 

tion,  —  not  because  I  object  to  the  creed,  but  I 
object  to  any  system  which  puts  a  preacher  under 
the  temptation  to  become  the  advocate  of  another 
man's  faith,  not  the  interpreter  and  expounder  of 
his  own. 

For  this  reason  candor  seems  to  me  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  preacher.  There  are  certain  virtues  which 
may  be  called  professional  virtues.  No  man  can  be 
an  efficient  soldier  without  courage;  though  he 
may  be  efficient  as  a  soldier  without  honesty.  No 
man  can  be  an  efficient  merchant  without  honesty ; 
though  he  may  be  efficient  as  a  merchant  without 
courage.  Candor  is  the  professional  virtue  of  the 
minister.  He  cannot  be  truly  successful  without  it. 
He  must  have  convictions  and  the  courage  of  his 
convictions.  Those  cynics  are  mistaken  who  im- 
agine that  the  preacher  is  popular  who  panders  to 
popular  prejudice.  The  answer  to  their  cynicism 
is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  American  pulpit. 
From  Jonathan  Edwards  to  the  present  day,  and  in 
all  the  denominations  alike,  the  great  preachers 
have  been  heroic  preachers.  Not  to  go  beyond  the 
circle  of  our  own  time,  Finney,  Channing,  the 
Beechers,  father  and  son,  Bushnell,  Phillips  Brooks, 
—  no  one  ever  questioned  the  courage  of  these 
men,  no  one  ever  doubted  their  candor,  and  crowds 
thronged  to  listen  to  them.  The  American  people 
like  a  brave  man,  a  man  of  strong  convictions  and 
the  courage  of  them. 

With  this  candor  and  courage  must  go  another 


220  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

quality  which  does  not  always  accompany  thenij  re- 
spect for  one's  fellow  men.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself  "  involves  more  than  a  spirit  of 
mutual  good-will,  it  involves  also  a  spirit  of  mutual 
respect.  The  preacher  must  understand,  and  he 
must  have  intellectual  respect  for,  opinions  which 
he  believes  to  be  thoroughly  erroneous.  It  may 
be  laid  down  as  an  axiom  that  you  can  never  per- 
suade another  man  to  your  point  of  view  until 
you  appreciate  his  point  of  view.  You  can  never 
get  another  to  take  your  position  until  you  have 
in  imagination  taken  his  position.  If  a  Protestant 
would  persuade  a  Roman  Catholic,  he  must  first 
sympathetically  imderstand  the  Roman  Catholic 
doctrines  of  Papal  Infallibility,  the  Adoration  of  the 
Virgin,  Transubstantiation,  and  the  Real  Presence. 
If  an  orthodox  believer  would  convince  an  Evolu- 
tionist of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall,  he 
must  first  imderstand  what  Evolution  means,  and 
what  are  the  grounds  on  which  the  scientist  accepts 
it.  If  the  preacher  would  impart  spiritual  vision  to 
men  and  women  in  his  congregation  who  are  with- 
out it,  he  must  first  enter  sympathetically  into  their 
conditions  of  life,  understand  what  the  counting- 
room  is,  and  what  its  temptations  and  its  struggles, 
and  what  the  life  of  modern  society  and  its  illusions 
and  snares.  If  he  would  persuade  the  employer  to 
some  different  attitude  towards  the  trade-union,  he 
must  first  see  the  trade-union  with  the  employer's 
eyes,  and  comprehend  the  friction  which  naturally 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    221 

if  not  inevitably  arises  in  our  time  between  the  or- 
ganizatiqns  of  labor  and  of  capital.  This  is  what 
Paul  did.  "Unfo  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew, 
that  I  might  gain  the  Jews ;  to  them  that  are  under 
the  law,  as  under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them 
that  are  under  the  law ;  to  them  that  are  with- 
out law,  as  without  law,  so  that  I  might  gain  them 
that  are  without  law.  To  the  weak  became  I  as 
weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak :  I  am  made  all 
things  to  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means  save 
some."^  This  is  what  Christ  did  when  he  came 
to  earth  and  entered,  not  merely  into  our  physical 
conditions  but  into  our  spiritual  experiences,  and 
was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  that  he 
might  become  our  Redeemer.  The  preacher  must 
by  imagination  enter  into  the  life  of  the  people  if 
he  would  impart  to  the  people  the  life  that  is  in 
Christ  his  Master.  The  preacher  must  understand 
us  if  he  desires  us  to  understand  him. 

There  are  three  difficulties  which  tend  to  prevent 
the  minister  from  entering  thus  sympathetically  into 
the  life  of  those  whom  he  is  addressing.  He  must 
be  an  educated  man ;  and  education  develops  cul- 
ture, taste,  and  the  critical  spirit,  and  these  tend  to 
separate  him  from  those  who  are  without  education, 
cultivation,  and  taste.  Ignorance  and  boorishness 
build  up  a  waU  upon  the  one  side,  cultivation  and 
taste  upon  the  other.  The  preacher  must  be  able  to 
sympathize  with  the  ignorant  and  the  boorish,  not- 

1 1  Cor.  ix,  20-22. 


222  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

withstanding  Ms  cultivation  and  his  taste.  His  in- 
terest in  people  is  therapeutic ;  he  studies  them  as  a 
physician  studies  his  patients,  that  he  may  cure 
them.  This  is  necessary,  and  yet  this  habit  of  study- 
ing men  as  specimens,  so  to  speak,  as  set  apart  from 
him  and  objects  of  his  ministry,  easily  tends  to  de- 
velop in  him  the  spirit  of  self-conceit ;  and  rehgious 
self-conceit  is  a  form  of  Pharisaism.  Thus,  unless 
in  all  his  study  of  mankind  he  is  able  to  preserve 
the  spirit  of  respect  for  mankind,  the  more  he 
studies,  the  less  competent  does  he  become  to  do  his 
Master's  work  among  men.  Finally,  since  vices  and 
intellectual  errors  arouse  his  conscience,  his  indig- 
nation is  stirred  against  them.  The  age  of  physi- 
cal persecution  has  passed,  but  the  spirit  which  led 
men  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  punish  heresy  with  fire 
and  sword  still  exists.  If  he  has  that  tolerance  of 
error  which  is  bom  of  indifference  to  it,  he  has  not 
the  earnestness  which  enables  him  to  combat  it. 
If  he  has  that  indignation  against  error  which  ac- 
companies the  spirit  of  religious  or  intellectual  seK- 
conceit,  he  has  not  that  human  touch  which  enables 
him  to  get  entrance  to  the  minds  of  the  men  whom 
he  wishes  to  convince  and  convert.  Thus  his  edu- 
cation, his  professional  interest,  and  his  conscience 
combine  to  separate  him  from  men,  and  will  sepa- 
rate him  from  them,  unless  he  sedulously  cultivates 
that  spiritual  imagination  which  enables  him  sym- 
pathetically to  understand  aU  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  and  that  respect  for  humanity  which  enables 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    223 

Mm  to  secure  their  sympathetic  hearing  for  his 
message. 

Another  quality  essential  to  the  preacher,  espe- 
cially in  our  time,  is  a  spirit  of  divine  hopefulness. 
The  pessimist  has  no  place  in  the  American  pulpit. 
The  preacher  should  be  a  leader  among  men.  If 
he  is  to  be  a  leader,  he  must  set  before  himself  an 
ideal,  and  he  must  have  in  himself  some  expecta- 
tion that  that  ideal  can  be  attained.  I  do  not  mean 
that  he  is  to  look  only  on  the  bright  side  of  things. 
He  is  to  have  the  courage  to  see  things  as  they  are, 
but  he  must  have  faith  in  a  God  who  is  in  the 
world  making  things  better,  and,  born  of  this  faith, 
an  incorrigible  expectation  that  they  will  be  better, 
and  an  invincible  determination  to  do  something  to 
make  them  better.  He  must  believe  that  out  of 
every  day  wiU  walk  a  better  to-morrow ;  he  must 
believe,  not  with  Browning,  that  "  God  's  in  his 
heaven,  all  *s  right  with  the  world,"  ^  but  that  God 
is  in  his  world,  and  therefore  all  will  yet  be  well 
with  it.  "  "We  are  saved  by  hope."  ^  He  who  has 
no  vision  to  see  a  better  future,  and  no  expectation 
inspiring  him  to  its  attainment,  does  not  belong  in 
the  Christian  ministry. 

With  this  spirit  of  candor,  courage,  considera- 
tion, and  hopefulness  should  go  patience.  "  So  is 
the  kingdom  of  God,  as  if  a  man  should  cast  seed 
into  the  ground;  and  should  sleep,  and  rise  night 

^  Robert  Browning  :  Pippa  Passes. 
2  Rom.  viii,  24. 


224  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and  day,  and  tlie  seed  should  spring  up  and  grow,  lie 
knoweth  not  how."  ^  The  kingdom  of  God,  then,  is 
a  growth ;  and  growth  requires  time,  and  time  de- 
mands patience.  "  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren, 
unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold,  the  husband- 
man waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and 
hath  long  patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  early 
and  latter  rain."  ^  The  impatience  of  preachers  is 
one  cause  of  the  constant  changes  in  the  ministry  and 
the  consequent  short  and  inefficacious  pastorates. 
A  young  man  once  called  upon  me  to  ask  my  help 
in  finding  a  new  pastorate.   To  my  question  why  he 

had  left  his  last  one,  he  replied,  "  The  town  of 

was  nearer  hell  on  earth  than  any  place  I  ever  saw." 
"  And  what,"  said  I,  "  is  a  minister  for,  except  to 
change  a  place  that  is  like  heU  on  earth  to  one  as 
near  as  possible  to  a  heaven  on  earth  ?  "  He  could 
give  me  no  answer.  Here  was  lamentable  lack  both 
of  courage  and  of  patience.  When  I  went  into  the 
ministry  my  father  gave  me  this  counsel :  "  It  is  a 
principle  in  mechanics  that  if  an  object  is  at  one 
point,  and  you  wish  to  carry  it  to  another  point,  you 
must  carry  it  through  all  the  intermediate  points. 
That  is  equally  true  in  morals.  If  your  congrega- 
tion is  at  one  point,  and  you  wish  to  take  them  to 
another  point,  do  not  try  to  carry  them  across ;  carry 
them  one  point  at  a  time."  This  is  the  principle  of 
patience  concretely  applied ;  it  will  prevent  the  pro- 
gressive preacher  from  breaking  his  connections  with 
1  Mark  iv,  26,  27.  ^  jamea  v,  7. 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    225 

his  congregation  in  a  too  great  eagerness  to  advance 
them.  If  a  conservative  preacher  finds  himself  the 
pastor  of  a  progressive  church,  or  a  progressive 
preacher  finds  himself  the  pastor  of  a  conservative 
church,  he  should  not  seek  a  change.  Let  him  stay 
where  he  is  and  attempt,  one  step  at  a  time,  to  con- 
vert them  to  his  better  way  of  thinking.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  honesty  requires  any  min- 
ister to  avow  all  his  beliefs  at  once,  regardless  of 
the  effect  of  his  avowal  on  his  auditors.^  It  is  a  still 
greater  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  must  proclaim 
his  dissent  from  his  church  and  then  depart  from 
it.  No  modern  preacher,  however  radical,  differs 
more  fundamentally  from  his  church  than  did  Jesus 
from  the  Judaism  of  his  time,  or  Paul  from  the 
synagogues,  or  Luther  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  But  Christ  remained  in  the  Jewish  Church 
until  it  excommunicated  him,  and  Paul  preached  in 
the  synagogues  until  he  was  driven  out,  and  Luther 
remained  a  Roman  Catholic  until  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  disowned  him.  These  are  good  examples 
for  dissidents  to  follow  in  our  time.  If  aU  radical 
preachers  go  into  radical  congregations  and  preach 
radicalism,  and  aU  conservative  preachers  go  into 
conservative  congregations  and  preach  conservatism, 
the  divisions  in  the  Church  of  Christ  are  made 
deeper  and  wider,  and  progress  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  becomes  impossible.    Candor,  courage,  con- 

1  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear 
them  now.  —  John  xvi,  12." 


226  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

sideration,  hopefulness,  and  patience  constitute  per- 
haps a  not  too  common  combination  of  qualities;  but 
they  are  essential  to  the  highest  and  more  enduring 
efficiency  in  the  Christian  ministry. 

What  courses  of  study  shall  a  minister  pursue  to 
develop  the  qualifications  and  increase  the  equip- 
ment for  his  work  ?  Assuming  that  he  has  gradu- 
ated from  a  theological  seminary,  has  acquired  there 
New  Testament  Greek,  some  knowledge  of  the  He- 
brew, such  an  acquaintance  with  historical  theology 
as  will  prevent  him  from  mistaking  old  errors  in  a 
new  dress  for  new  discoveries,  such  a  knowledge  of 
the  ecclesiastical  machinery  of  his  own  church  as 
will  enable  him  to  work  understandingly  and  loyally 
in  it,  and  such  acquaintance  with  the  English  lan- 
guage as  wiU  make  him  reasonably  successful  if  not 
a  master  in  the  use  of  it,  what  are  the  lifelong 
courses  of  study  which  he  must  pursue  ?  They  all 
seem  to  me  to  be  reducible  to  three  branches. 
^^^^^  He  must  study  human  nature.  The  best  literary 
material  for  such  study  is  furnished  by  the  great 
novelists,  poets,  and  dramatists.  They  are  the  in- 
terpreters of  life  ;  and  life  in  its  essential  elements 
is  the  same  in  aU  ages,  under  all  conditions,  and  in 
all  civilizations.  But  he  should  not  merely  read  the 
great  novelists,  poets,  and  dramatists  for  entertain- 
ment ;  he  should  study  them  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
certaining what  are  the  motives  which  actuate  men, 
what  the  life  which  hides  behind  the  masks  they 
wear,  what  the  real  personality  hidden  beneath  the 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    227 

conventional  incognito.  He  must  familiarize  himself 
also  with  the  conditions  of  modern  life  and  of 
modern  thought.  He  must  know  both  the  intpUec- 
tual  and  the  industrial  life  of  his  age,  for  it  is  to 
that  life  he  is  to  apply  the  principles  and  precepts 
of  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  of  that  life  he  is  appointed  to 
be  a  leader,  it  is  that  life  which  he  has  to  guide 
toward  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  he  must  study- 
human  nature  sympathetically  in  the  individual 
members  of  his  parish.  He  must  be  a  man  among 
men^  and  must  cultivate  in  himself  the  receptive 
habit  of  mind,  the  habit  of  listening  and  consider- 
ing the  views  and  sentiments  of  others.  He  must 
receive  impressions  from  his  people  through  the 
week,  that  he  may  impart  impressions  to  them  on 
Sunday. 

He  must  study  the  Bible ;  because  in  no  other 
literature  will  he  find  such  an  interpretation  of  the 
higher  spiritual  experiences  of  men,  such  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  divine  remedies  for  the  sins  and  sorrow 
which  afflict  mankind.  He  should  remember,  too, 
that  there  is  a  great  difference  between  studying  the 
Bible  and  studying  the  commentaries  on  the  Bible, 
He  who  can  get  back  to  the  Bible  itself,  who  can 
apprehend  the  social  and  ethical  principles  which 
underlie  the  Old  Testament  jurisprudence,  and 
which  are  expounded  and  applied  to  their  own  times 
by  the  Hebrew  prophets,  who  can  understand  the 
great  principles  of  individual  life  which  find  ex- 
pression in  the  precepts  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  inter- 


228  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

pretation  in  the  philosophy  of  Paul  and  of  John, 
and  then  can  apply  those  moral  and  spiritual  and 
those  social  and  individual  principles  to  the  pro- 
blems of  our  own  time,  will  always  be  an  original 
preacher. 

But  more  important  than  his  study  either  of  hu- 
man nature  or  of  the  Bible  is  his  cultivation  of  ac- 
quaintance with  God.  He  must  learn  to  look,  in  the 
events  occurring  in  his  own  generation,  for  the  God 
who  is  as  truly  in  the  history  of  America  to-day  as 
he  was  in  the  history  of  Palestine  in  the  olden  times. 
Christ  denounced  the  Pharisees  because  they  could 
not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times.  The  prophet  of 
to-day  must  perceive  what  God  is  doing  in  the  world 
to-day  if  he  would  cooperate  with  God.  But  it  is 
not  only  or  chiefly  in  events  that  he  is  to  seek  for 
the  Great  Companion,  —  he  must  seek  for  him  in 
the  quiet  of  his  own  soul.  Some  one  has  well  said 
that  studying  is  searching  for  new  truth,  meditating 
is  dwelling  with  familiar  truth.  The  minister  must 
find  time  not  only  to  study  but  to  meditate,  not  only 
to  do  and  to  think,  but  also  to  listen.  To  the  lover 
of  literature  the  most  fruitful  hours  are  not  those 
spent  with  his  books  of  reference  about  him,  digging 
for  knowledge  as  for  a  hid  treasure  ;  they  are  those 
spent  in  the  quiet  of  the  library,  or  the  greater  quiet 
of  the  forest,  in  the  summer  time,  with  Browning 
or  Shakespeare  or  Carlyle  or  Tennyson  or  Whittier 
in  hand.  We  read  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  then 
the  book  drops  into  our  lap,  and  we  begin  to  think 


QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  MINISTRY    229 

the  author's  thoughts,  to  dream  his  dream,  to  see 
his  visions.  These  hours  in  which  we  simply  listen 
to  what  the  men  of  genius  have  to  say,  —  are  they 
not  the  most  fruitful  hours  of  our  life  ?  The  most 
sacred  hours  with  nature  are  not  those  in  which  with 
spade  or  hoe  we  are  digging,  the  better  to  cultivate 
fruits  or  flowers,  nor  those  in  which  with  hammer 
we  break  the  rocks,  or  with  magnifying  glass  we 
examine  the  flowers,  to  learn  the  secrets  which  nature 
has  written  in  her  book.  Some  day  in  June  we  lie 
down  on  the  grass  and  simply  take  what  nature  has 
to  give  us.  The  squirrel  runs  up  the  tree  and  looks 
at  us ;  the  robin  hops  along,  peeps  at  us,  utters  a 
little  note,  picks  up  his  breakfast,  and  flies  away 
again ;  the  cricket  shows  himself  in  the  grass  close 
by,  and  chirps  a  cheerful  note  to  us.  We  are  not 
studying,  we  are  scarcely  thinking,  we  are  simply 
listening.  And  we  are  learning  more  from  nature 
then  than  when  we  are  striving  to  wrest  her  secrets 
from  her. 

As  we  listen  to  what  great  men  have  to  say  to 
us,  and  to  what  nature  has  to  say  to  us,  so  may 
we  listen  in  silence  and  solitude  to  what  God  has 
to  say  to  us.  Savonarola  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"  We  are  too  busy  praying  ever  to  listen  to  God." 
There  is  danger  in  our  time  that  we  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  in  this  strenuous  and  eager  life,  shall 
be  so  busy  working  for  God  that  we  reserve  little 
time  to  pray  to  him  and  no  time  to  listen  to  him. 
The  best  hours,  the  most  fruitful  hours,  the  hours 


230  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

fullest  of  inspiration  for  future  service  are  those 
in  wliicli  our  only  utterance  is,  "  Speak,  Lord  ;  thy 
servant  is  listening,"  and  the  only  message  we  re- 
ceive is,  "  Be  stiU,  and  know  that  I  am  God."  ^  The 
busier  the  minister  is,  the  more  exacting  his  parish, 
the  more  multifarious  his  duties,  the  more  import- 
ant is  it  that  he  keep  sacred  from  every  interrup- 
tion, every  call,  whether  of  pleasure  or  of  duty,  this 
quiet  hour. 

1  1  Sam.  iii,  9 ;  Psalm  xlvi,  10. 


CHAPTER  Vin 

SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME 

The  system  of  priests  and  sacrifices  Israel  had  in 
common  with  other  and  pagan  religions,  but  the 
order  of  the  prophets  was  unique.  They  belonged 
to  no  ecclesiastical  order,  they  received  no  ordina- 
tion, they  had  no  ecclesiastical  authority.  It  is  true 
that  in  other  religions  there  have  been  seers  and 
soothsayers  who  possessed  characteristics  and  made 
claims  somewhat  resembling  those  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  but  the  contrasts  are  far  greater  than  the 
parallels.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  go  into  those  con- 
trasts in  any  detail.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that 
there  is  not  to  be  found  anywhere  in  human  history 
any  such  body  of  religious  writers  and  teachers, 
bound  together  only  by  a  common  faith,  believing 
themselves  to  have  a  message  from  the  Eternal,  and 
bringing  that  message  to  bear  upon  the  practical 
affairs  of  life  —  any  order  parallel  to  that  of  the 
prophets. 

Moses  was  the  first  of  them.  Peter,  James,  John, 
and  Paul  were  the  last  of  them.  Moses  is  called 
a  prophet,  although  he  is  more  generally  known 
as  the  great  lawgiver.  The  New  Testament  pro- 
phets have  another  name,  —  they  are  called  apostles 


232  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

rather  than  prophets ;  yet  they  have  the  essential 
spiritual  characteristics  which  belong  to  the  order 
with  which  spiritually  they  are  connected,  and  with 
which,  I  think,  we  modern  ministers  should  also 
be  spiritually  connected,  if  we  are  to  hope  to  have 
power  in  our  ministry.  How  important  was  this 
unecclesiastical  order  of  the  prophets  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  something  like  a  quarter  of  the 
whole  literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  as  it  is 
contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  composed  of 
the  prophetic  writings  of  these  ministers  of  the 
olden  times.  It  is  of  these  prophets,  their  spirit, 
their  messages,  their  methods,  I  speak  in  this  chap- 
ter. For  they  are  models  whom  we  are  to  study, 
though  not  slavishly  to  imitate.  It  may  be  said  of 
them,  as  Paul  and  Barnabas  said  of  themselves, 
"  We  also  are  men  of  like  passions  with  you,"  and 
what  Paul  said  of  himself,  "  We  know  in  part,  and 
we  prophesy  in  part."  ^  We  have  been  too  prone  to 
set  these  messengers  of  Jehovah  apart  by  them- 
selves, as  though  God  no  longer  spoke  to  man  as  he 
spoke  to  them,  as  though  either  God  had  grown 
dumb  or  men  deaf,  as  though  inspiration  were  a 
lost  grace,  and  receiving  it  and  speaking  because  of 
it  were  a  lost  art.  But  if  they  were  not  men,  pos- 
sessing ordinary  human  attributes,  and  speaking  and 
acting  under  the  recognized  laws  of  human  nature, 
it  would  be  idle  and  indeed  impossible  to  study 
them.   It  is  only  as  we  can  share  their  experiences 

^  Acts  xiv,  15  ;  1  Cor.  xiii,  9. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    233 

that  it  is  possible  for  us  to  understand  them,  and 
it  is  only  that  we  may  both  understand  and  share 
their  experiences  that  we  profitably  study  them. 
Only  as  the  preacher  shares  the  experiences  and 
characteristics  of  the  prophets  can  he  be  truly  suc- 
cessful in  his  ministry.  It  is  to  a  study  of  these 
characteristics  I  ask  the  reader  to  accompany  me  in 
this  chapter. 

In  the  first  place,  these  prophets  claimed  to  be 
representatives  of  God.  Their  very  name  indicates 
this  claim.  "  Prophet "  is  a  speaker  for  another. 
Says  Ewald,  — 

Confining  ourselves  for  the  present  to  the  Hebrew 
language,  its  name  for  a  prophet  denotes  originally  a 
loud,  clear  speaker,  yet  always  one  who  declares  the 
mind  and  words  of  another  who  does  not  himself  speak ; 
just  as  a  dumb  or  retired  person  must  have  a  speaker  to 
speak  for  him  and  declare  his  thoughts,  so  must  God, 
who  is  dumb  with  respect  to  the  mass  of  men,  have  his 
messenger  or  speaker ;  and  hence  the  word  in  its  sacred 
sense  denotes  him  who  speaks  not  of  himself,  but  as  com- 
missioned by  his  God.^ 

This  is  the  first  and  the  most  essential  charac- 
teristic of  the  Hebrew  prophet.  He  is  a  speaker 
for  another,  and  that  other  the  invisible,  inaudible 
God.  He  is  an  interpreter  of  God  to  men.  He  is 
called,  therefore,  a  man  of  God,  or  a  man  of  the 

1  G.  H.  A.  von  Ewald  :  Commentary  on  the.  Prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament,  vol.  i,  p.  8.  Compare  A.  P.  Stanley :  History  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  Lecture  XIX,  vol.  i,  pp.  367-369 ;  G.  A.  Smith : 
The  Booh  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,  vol.  i,  p.  12. 


234  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

Spirit,  or  an  interpreter.  He  is  said  to  be  full  of 
the  Spirit.  He  speaks  with  this  authority,  implicit 
or  explicit.  Sometimes  he  dramatically  speaks  in 
the  name  of  God :  as  though  God  were  speaking, 
he  speaks.  Thus  Paul  says :  "  We  are  ambassadors 
for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us : 
we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to 
God."  Thus  Micaiah  says :  "  As  the  Lord  liveth, 
what  my  God  saith,  that  will  I  speak."  i  Thus  a 
very  common  introduction  to  a  prophecy  is  the 
phrase  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  The  prophet  cus- 
tomarily claims  to  have  been  called  to  his  mission 
by  God.  He  describes,  or  others  describe  for  him, 
this  call  from  God,  which  is  sometimes  attended  by 
dramatic  incidents,  as  Moses  called  at  the  burning 
bush,  Isaiah  in  the  Temple,  Ezekiel  in  the  desert. 
Where  there  is  no  such  dramatic  incident  accom- 
panying and  attesting  the  call,  or  where  it  is  rele- 
gated to  a  secondary  place,  the  call  is  not  less  clear 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  prophet.  Thus  Jeremiah 
is  called  in  his  childhood  and  Amos  while  he  is 
following  the  flocks  as  a  herdsman.^ 

It  is  this  speaking  for  God  which  distinguishes 
the  true  prophet  from  the  false  prophet.  The  true 
prophet  is  not  distinguished  by  the  fact  that  all  his 
predictions  come  true  ;  they  do  not  aU  of  them  come 

1  Deut.  xxxiii,  1 ;  Judg.  xiii,  6 ;  Hos.  ix,  7,  R.  V.  ;  Num.  xi, 
26 ;  xxvii,  1, 8  ;  Is.  Ixi,  1,  xliii,  27,  R.  V. ;  Job  xxxiii,  23 ;  Dan.  v, 
16 ;  2  Cor.  v,  20 ;  1  Kings  xxii,  14. 

2  Ex.  iii,  1-18 ;  Is.  ri ;  Ezek.  i,  ii,  iii,  10-14 ;  Jer.  i,  4-7 ;  Amos 
vii,  14,  15. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    235 

true,  —  he  is  sometimes  mistaken.  He  is  not  distin- 
guished from  the,  false  prophet  merely  by  a  higher 
ethical  standard,  though  his  ethical  standard  is 
higher.  The  true  prophet  speaks  as  a  representa- 
tive of  God;  the  false  prophet  as  an  interpreter 
and  representative  of  men.  The  false  prophet 
studies  the  popular  currents,  watches  to  see  what 
people  think,  asks  what  they  want  to  hear,  and  gives 
them  the  message  they  desire.  So  he  cries.  Peace ! 
Peace !  when  there  is  no  peace.^  So,  in  the  time 
when  the  nation  is  threatened  and  the  people  want 
a  counsel,  he  brings  them  the  counsel  which  they 
want,  or  think  they  want.^  The  false  prophet  has  — 
to  use  the  American  phrase  —  his  ear  to  the  ground ; 
he  watches  the  currents  of  public  sentiment,  as  a 
politician  does,  or  as  an  editor  does,  or  as  I  fear 
some  ministers  do.  This  is  the  false  prophet,  the 
man  who  is  an  interpreter  of  popular  sentiment. 
The  true  prophet  has  his  ear  toward  God ;  he  is  lis- 
tening for  the  voice  of  God ;  he  brings  the  word  of 
God  to  mankind ;  he  is  impelled  to  give  his  mes- 
sage, whether  men  will  hear  or  whether  they  will 
forbear.  He  is  the  messenger  of  a  great,  an  infinite, 
a  Divine  King,  Lord,  Father.^ 

It  is  this  claim  on  the  prophet's  part  to  speak  for 
God,  and  in  the  name  of  God,  that  distinguishes 
him  from  the  wise  men,  and  so  distinguishes  the 
books  of  prophecy  from  the  books  of  "  Proverbs  " 

1  Jer.  vi,  13,  14.  «  For  example,  1  Kings  xxii,  1-23. 

8  Ezek.  ii,  5,  7,  iii,  11. 


236  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

or  "  Ecclesiastes.*'  The  prophet  does  not  grope  his 
way  after  truth ;  he  does  not  argue ;  he  does  not 
present  hypotheses  and  reasons  deduced  from  ex- 
perience for  them.  The  prophet  is  not  a  philoso- 
pher. He,  therefore,  has  no  system  to  propound. 
We  can  deduce  theological  systems  from  the  pro- 
phets, but  we  cannot  find  a  system  of  theology  in  the 
prophets  ;  so  we  can  buUd  a  house  out  of  the  trees 
of  the  forest,  but  the  trees  of  the  forest  do  not  con- 
stitute a  house.  The  prophet  is  a  witness.  He  tes- 
tifies to  the  things  that  he  has  heard  and  seen.  I 
believed,  therefore  have  I  spoken,  —  this  is  his  mes- 
sage.^ He  is  a  man  of  visions,  and  he  reports  the 
visions.    He  is  preeminently  a  witness-bearer. 

And  yet  he  does  not  claim  superiority  to  the  men 
about  him.  He  does  not  claim  to  be  their  master 
or  their  lord,  or  to  have  access  to  sources  of  know- 
ledge which  they  do  not  possess,  or  to  be  their 
spiritual  superior,  to  belong  to  a  spiritual  aristo- 
cracy. He  believes  that  God  is  a  Universal  Pres- 
ence ;  that  he  is  in  all  nature,  in  all  history,  in  all 
human  experience.  The  prophets  do  not  think  that 
they  are  inspired  more  than  other  men  are  inspired ; 
only  that  they  have  heard  the  voice,  have  obeyed 
the  vision,  have  understood  the  message.  The  com- 
monest operations  of  the  human  mind  they  attrib- 
ute to  the  direct  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
This  truth  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  "  The  Plough- 
man's Ode : " 

1  Psalm  cxvi,  10 ;  2  Cor.  iv,  13. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    237 

Listen,  and  hear  ye  my  voice, 

Attend,  and  hear  ye  my  speech. 
Is  the  ploughman  never  done  with  his  ploughing", 

With  the  opening  and  harrowing  of  ground  ? 
Does  he  not,  when  its  surface  is  leveled. 

Scatter  fennel,  and  sow  cummin  broadcast^ 
And  duly  set  wheat  there  and  barley, 

And  for  its  border  plant  spelt  ? 
It  is  Jahveh  who  has  taught  these  right  courses, 

It  is  his  Grod  who  has  trained  him. 

We  do  not  thresh  fennel  with  sledges, 

Nor  are  cart-wheels  rolled  over  cummin, 
But  fennel  is  threshed  with  a  staff. 

And  cummin  is  threshed  with  a  rod. 
Do  we  ever  crush  bread-corn  to  pieces  ? 

Nay,  the  threshing  goes  not  on  forever. 
But  when  over  it  cart-wheels  are  driven. 

Or  sledges,  our  care  is  never  to  crush  it. 
This  also  from  Jahveh  proceeds : 

Wonderful  counsel,  great  wisdom  has  He.^ 

In  their  view  everything  proceeds  from  Jehovah. 
There  is  no  difference  between  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural:  all  the  natural  is  supernatural;  all 
the  supernatural  is  natural.  This  inspiration  which 
is  universal,  the  prophet  recognizes  as  possible  to 
the  men  about  him.  He  speaks  that  he  may  give 
them  the  hearing  ear  and  the  seeing  eye ;  that  he 
may  lead  them  to  hear  the  voices  that  he  has  heard, 
to  see  something  of  the  vision  that  he  has  seen. 

This  vision  does  not  always  come  to  him,  it  is 

not  always  presented,  suddenly  and  unexpectedly. 

Sometimes  it  is,  sometimes  not.    For  the  prophet 

has  not  laid  aside  his  personality  in  taking  on  this 

1  Isaiah  xxix,  23-29,  Cheyne's  translation. 


238  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

influence  of  God ;  after  the  inspiration  lie  is  no  less 
the  person  that  he  was  before.  He  is  still  the  same 
man,  with  the  same  temperament,  the  same  quali- 
ties, the  same  characteristics.  These  prophets  do 
not  believe  that  a  man  should  be  an  empty  and 
broken  vessel  in  order  to  be  meet  for  the  Master's 
use ;  they  believe  that  he  should  be  a  strong,  vigor- 
ous, manly  man  to  be  meet  for  the  Master's  use. 
When  Ezekiel  sees  the  vision  in  the  desert  and 
throws  himself  prostrate  on  the  ground,  the  voice 
that  comes  to  him  says,  "  Son  of  man,  stand  upon 
thy  feet,  and  I  will  speak  unto  thee."  ^  It  is  to  men 
standing  on  their  feet,  all  their  senses  alert,  all  their 
powers  active,  that  God  speaks.  These  prophets  are 
not  passive  recipients  and  parrot-like  repeaters. 
The  message  given  to  them  becomes  a  part  of 
their  own  faith,  inspires  their  personality,  and  trans- 
forms them  and  makes  them  what  they  are.  So  it 
comes  to  them  according  to  their  temperament. 
Sometimes  it  flashes  upon  them  in  a  vision,  as  it 
flashes  upon  Isaiah  in  the  Temple.  Sometimes  they 
long  for  it  and  wait  for  it  as  a  man  coming  across 
the  sea  watches  on  the  watch  tower  for  an  expected 
haven.  Sometimes  they  pray  for  it  with  unutterable 
longings  and  it  comes  in  answer  to  their  prayer. 
Sometimes  they  have  to  fight  for  it,  and  it  is  the 
product  only  of  a  hard  life  battle.  So  Habakkuk 
fought  for  the  vision  that  came  to  him  :  "  O  Lord, 
how  long  shall  I  cry  and  thou  wilt  not  hear  I  I  cry 
1  Ezek.  ii,  1. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    239 

out  unto  thee  of  violence,  and  thou  wilt  not  save !  " 
This  is  the  beginning  of  his  experience ;  listen  to 
the  end : 

Althongh  the  fig  tree  shall  not  blossom, 
Neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines ; 
The  labor  of  the  olive  shall  fail, 
And  the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat ; 
The  flock  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold. 
And  there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stalls  : 
Yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord, 
I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation.^ 

His  faith  is  not  a  ripe  fruit  that  has  dropped  into 
his  open  palm  from  the  bough  of  a  tree :  he  has 
had  to  plough,  to  harrow,  and  to  dig  for  it  as  men 
dig  for  a  hid  treasure ;  he  has  had  to  battle  in  order 
that  he  might  win  it.  Paul  has  to  fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith  that  he  may  receive  faith's  coronation : 
"  Neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principali- 
ties, nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  created 
thing,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  Cannot 
we  see  how  life  and  death  and  principalities  and 
powers  and  things  present  and  things  to  come  have 
been  attempting  to  separate  him  from  God ;  how  he 
has  had  to  fight  for  his  faith  before  he  could  call 
himself  "  more  than  conqueror  "  ?  ^  This  faith  was 
not  received  in  the  silence  of  the  mind,  in  the 
quietude  of  a  retreat;  it  was  won  through  battle 
and  in  the  midst  of  a  strenuous,  energetic  life.  The 
1  Hab.  i,  2,  iii,  17, 18.  «  2  Tim.  iv,  7 ;  Rom.  vifi,  37-39. 


240  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

story  of  Hosea  affords  a  striking  illustration  of  one 
of  the  ways  in  which  these  prophets  learned  the 
truth  they  were  to  teach  to  others.  His  wife  was 
unfaithful  to  him.  But  he  loved  her  and  would  not 
put  her  away  from  him.  Then  she  grew  weary  of 
him;  perhaps  of  his  very  pity  and  love,  and  de- 
serted him  for  some  unknown  lover  who  could  sat- 
isfy her  greed  for  gold  and  her  ignoble  ambition. 
Deserted  by  this  lover,  she  sank  lower  and  lower, 
until  at  last  she  sold  herself  to  a  life  of  public  har- 
lotry. So  Hosea  at  last  found  her,  a  helpless  slave, 
bought  her,  though  she  had  fallen  so  low  that  he 
paid  for  her  less  than  he  would  have  paid  for  one 
of  the  poorer  and  cheaper  slaves,  and  took  her  back, 
never  more  to  be  his  wife,  but  was  evermore  her 
guardian  and  protector.  And  from  his  own  heart's 
sore  trial,  and  from  his  own  patient  love  toward  an 
apostate  wife,  he  learned  the  lesson  of  God's  love 
which  forms  the  burden  of  his  prophecy:  God  is 
the  faithful  lover ;  Israel  is  the  unfaithful  wife ; 
sin  is  against  love,  not  merely  against  law ;  but  love 
is  infinite  and  eternal  and  cannot  be  destroyed.^ 

These  prophets  are  not  mere  messengers.  They 
are  not  like  a  telegraph  boy  who  takes  a  sealed  let- 
ter from  the  office  and  carries  it  to  some  one  and 
does  not  know  what  it  contains.  They  are  not  like 
phonographs  to  whom  the  message  is  communicated 
and  by  whom  the  message  is  repeated.  Their  mes- 
sages are  not  dictated  to  them ;  they  are  not  merely 

1  Hosea  i-iii. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    241 

amanuenses  who  write  down  what  is  dictated.  The 
message  enters  into  them,  transforms  their  nature, 
makes  them  what  they  are.  So  they  are  holy  men, 
spiritual  men,  godly  men,  with  the  message  wrought 
into  their  own  consciousness  and  coming  forth  from 
their  own  consciousness.  It  becomes  part  of  their 
nature.  The  word  is  in  their  hearts  as  a  burning 
fire  shut  up  in  their  bones.  They  cannot  keep  it 
to  themselves ;  it  must  find  expression.  "  Woe  is 
me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel!  "  cries  Paul.  "  The 
Lord  God  hath  spoken,  who  can  but  prophesy  ?  " 
cries  Amos.^  They  must  speak.  Their  message, 
just  because  it  has  become  a  part  of  their  very 
nature,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  retain. 

Hence  when  this  message  is  given  forth,  it  is 
transformed  by  their  personality.  How  much  of 
what  Isaiah  said  was  Isaiah,  and  how  much  was  the 
Spirit  of  God,  no  man  can  tell.  How  much  of 
the  sermon  which  the  preacher  wiU  write  for  next 
Sunday  is  born  of  his  own  thinking,  how  much  did 
he  get  out  of  his  theological  studies,  how  much 
came  of  his  reading  of  Carlyle  or  Calvin,  Emerson 
or  Edwards  ?  Who  can  answer  this  question  ?  He 
has  been  reading  all  these  years,  listening  to  mes- 
sages, studying  carefully ;  the  results  of  his  study 
and  thinking  have  entered  into  his  character,  and 
have  been  made  a  part  of  himseK  ;  and  then  they 
come  forth  suffused  with  his  own  personality. 

Consequently  these  messages  of  the  ancient  pro- 
^  Jer.  XX,  9 ;  1  Cor.  ix,  16 ;  Amos  iii,  8. 


242  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

phets  are  human  messages.  Into  the  message  of  each 
the  life  of  the  messenger  enters.  The  message  trans- 
forms the  character  of  the  messenger,  but  the  char- 
acter of  the  messenger  no  less  gives  color  and 
character  to  the  message.  Each  prophet  speaks 
according  to  the  spirit  and  temper  of  his  own 
nature.  Paul  uses  the  same  word  to  express  the 
spirit  of  holiness  within  a  man  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
operating  on  a  man.  Oftentimes  we  cannot  tell 
which  he  means.  Sometimes  I  do  not  think  he 
knows  himself,  the  two  are  so  interwoven  in  his 
experience.  This  Holy  Spirit  operating  within  has 
so  changed  the  spirit  within,  and  this  spirit  so 
derives  its  life  from  the  Spirit  without  him,  that 
he  cannot  distinguish  one  from  the  other,  and  uses 
the  same  word  to  mean  either,  or  both  in  their  com- 
mingled action. 

Hence  the  messages  of  these  prophets  are  indi- 
vidual messages.  Amos,  the  Carlyle  of  Hebrew 
literature,  is  an  interpreter  of  the  divine  con- 
science ;  Hosea,  a  poet  of  infinite  tenderness,  is  an 
interpreter  of  the  divine  mercy  ;  Isaiah,  the  states- 
man-prophet of  his  people,  is  largely  a  preacher  of 
political  righteousness ;  Micah,  the  prophet  of  the 
poor,  is  the  socialistic  voice  of  his  age  ;  Habakkuk 
is  the  prophet  of  victorious  faith  conquering  a  native 
pessimistic  skepticism;  Jeremiah  is  the  first  indi- 
vidualist among  the  Hebrew  prophets,  a  Protestant 
ages  before  Protestantism ;  Ezekiel  is  the  voice  of 
the  Hebrew  liturgists  or  churchmen ;   the   Great 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    243 

Unknown,  the  prophet  whose  writings  appear  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  book  of  Isaiah,  is  the  most 
catholic  of  all  this  ancient  ministry,  a  fountain  and 
inspiration  to  largeness  of  faith  and  hope  for  all 
the  ages.  Thus  in  these  messengers  of  the  Lord 
is  every  type  of  temperament,  and  therefore  every 
type  of  message :  justice  and  mercy,  individualism 
and  socialism,  ecclesiasticism  and  Protestantism, 
pessimism  and  optimism.  These  men  do  not  all 
have  the  same  message ;  they  do  not  all  repeat  the 
same  story;  they  are  not  mere  echoes  of  a  voice. 
The  life  has  entered  into  them,  commingling  with 
their  life,  and  comes  forth  tinged  by  their  pervad- 
ing experiences.  They  are  transformed  by  the  mes- 
sage, and  the  message  is  also  transformed  by  them. 
These  men,  thus  speaking  forth  from  God,  get 
the  power  of  their  message  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  interpreting  God,  —  not  echoing  the  public  sen- 
timent of  their  time,  but  receiving,  understanding, 
appreciating,  and  repeating  the  message  that  all 
men  might  receive  from  God  if  they  would  but  use 
their  ears  to  hear.  Some  men  have  power  over  an 
audience  by  reason  of  their  innate  character,  their 
mere  force  of  will.  They  master  other  men  by 
the  power  of  their  personality.  This  is  not  the  case 
with  the  prophets ;  at  least  they  declare  that  it  is 
not.  When  Moses  is  asked  to  go  on  his  mission,  he 
protests  that  he  is  not  the  one  to  go.  "  I  am  slow 
of  speech  and  of  a  slow  tongue,"  he  says.  When 
Isaiah  is  called  upon  to  go  on  his  mission,  he  re- 


244  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

plies,  "  I  am  a  man  of  miclean  lips."  He  does  not 
think  himself  the  one  to  regenerate  the  people. 
When  Jeremiah  is  called,  he  pleads  his  youth  and 
inexperience  as  a  reason  why  he  should  not  go.  "  I 
cannot  speak,"  he  says,  "  for  I  am  a  child."  When 
Paul  is  called  as  a  missionary  to  the  Gentiles,  he 
argues  that  he  is  better  fitted  to  be  an  apostle  to 
the  Jews  because  they  know  how  intense  a  Jew  he 
has  been.i  These  are  not  men  with  a  transcendent, 
innate,  self-conscious  power  which  carries  them 
forth  against  all  obstacles  and  enables  them  to 
overcome  all  difficulties.  That  is  not  the  secret 
of  their  power. 

Some  men  borrow  their  power  from  their  audi- 
ences. The  power  of  an  orator,  wrote  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, "  is  an  influence  principally  received  from 
his  audience  (so  to  speak)  in  vapor,  which  he  pours 
back  upon  them  in  a  flood."  ^  That  is,  no  doubt, 
the  secret  of  a  great  deal  of  real,  genuine  pulpit  and 
platform  oratory.  But  these  prophets  spoke  to  inat- 
tentive audiences,  indifferent  audiences,  hostile  audi- 
ences. Their  audiences  did  not  give  them  in  vapor 
what  they  gave  back  in  a  flood.  Ezekiel  compares 
the  people  to  whom  he  is  to  speak  to  a  vallej^  of  dry 
bones.  Isaiah  declares  of  the  people  of  his  day  that 
their  hearts  are  fat  and  their  ears  are  heavy  and 
their  eyes  are  shut,  lest  they  should  see  with  their 
eyes  and  hear  with  their  ears  and  understand  with 

1  Exodus  iv,  10 ;  Isaiah  vi,  5 ;  Jer.  i,  6  ;  Acts  xxii,  17-21. 

2  Quoted  by  John  Morley :  lAft  of  Gladstone^  i,  191. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    245 

their  heart.^  The  power  of  these  prophets  was  not 
in  their  own  innate  sense  of  power;  it  was  not 
borrowed  from  the  people  to  whom  they  spoke  and 
reflected  back  to  them  again ;  it  was  in  their  con- 
sciousness of  th&  presence  in  them  of  the  living 
God,  speaking  in  them,  giving  them  their  message, 
transforming  their  nature,  imparting  to  them  their 
life,  sending  them  on  their  errand. 

Intuitionalists  and  idealists  as  they  were,  yet 
they  were  practical  men.  They  were  idealists  and 
intuitionalists  in  obtaining  their  message,  they  were 
practical  men  in  giving  it.  This  differentiates  them 
from  the  poet.  The  poet  sees  his  vision,  and  then 
he  expresses  himself  because  he  wishes  to  express 
himself.  It  is  a  pleasure  for  him  to  do  so.  As  one 
sits  down  at  the  organ  and  plays  upon  it  because 
it  expresses  music,  though  there  be  no  one  in  the 
room,  so  the  poet  plays  upon  the  instrument  of  his 
imagination  and  gives  forth  the  utterances,  whether 
men  will  read  his  poetry  or  whether  they  will  not. 
The  men  to  whom  this  poem  will  come  are  not  in 
his  mind  at  all ;  it  is  the  vision  which  is  in  his  mind. 
This  is  not  so  with  the  prophets.  They  are  eager  to 
give  their  vision  to  their  f  eUow  men.  AU  their  pro- 
phecies have  a  definite  spiritual  purpose,  and  if  we 
study  the  history  of  the  time,  we  can  see  what  that 
purpose  is.  They  come  to  convince  men  of  their 
sins  or  to  inspire  men  with  hope,  to  cast  men  from 
their  pride  or  to  lift  them  up  from  their  despair ; 

1  Ezek.  xxxvii,  1-11 ;  Isaiah  vi,  9, 10. 


246  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

but  they  come  always  with  some  message  of  healing, 
of  help,  of  medicine.  It  is  a  message  from  God, 
but  it  is  no  less  a  message  to  men.  It  is  this  which 
gives  their  messages  such  practicality.  They  do  not 
deal  with  sin  op  with  righteousness  in  the  abstract, 
but  with  the  actual  sins  and  the  actual  virtues  of 
the  men  of  their  time. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  conviction  of  sin  is  no 
longer  experienced  as  it  was  experienced  in  the 
days  of  our  fathers.  But  I  wonder  whether  our 
conviction  of  sin  to-day  is  not  a  much  better  con- 
viction of  sin  than  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  is. 
Our  fathers  had  a  conviction  of  sin :  we  have  a 
conviction  of  sins  ;  and  it  is  better  to  have  a  con- 
viction of  sins  than  a  conviction  of  sin.  Notwith- 
standing their  conviction  of  sin,  drunkenness,  or 
at  least  drinking  to  excess,  was  not  unconunon  at 
church  ordinations.  Notwithstanding  their  convic- 
tion of  sin,  they  left  slavery  undisturbed.  Our 
conviction  of  sin  may  not  be  so  profound,  but  we 
have  abolished  slavery,  we  have  driven  the  saloon 
out  of  the  church,  and  perhaps  by  and  by  we  shall 
drive  it  out  of  the  highways.  Our  religion  may  be 
less  spiritual,  but  it  is  more  practical  than  the  re- 
ligion of  our  fathers.  In  this  respect  it  is  more  like 
the  religion  of  the  prophets.  One  quotation  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  practicality  of  their  teaching : 

Wherefore  have  we  fasted,  say  they,  and  Thou  seest  not  ?  morti- 
fied ourselves,  and  Thou  markest  it  not  ? 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    247 

Surely,  on  your  fast-day  ye  pursue  your  business,  and  all  money 

lent  on  pledge  ye  exact  ? 
Surely,  it  is  for  strife  and  contention  ye  fast,  and  to  smite  with  the 

fist  the  poor ; 
Such  fasting  as  yours  to-day  will  not  make  your  voice  heard  on 

high. 
Can  such  be  the  fast  that  I  choose,  a  day  when  a  man  mortifies 

himself  ? 
To  droop  one's  head  like  a  bulrush,  and  to  make  sackcloth  and 

ashes  one's  couch  — 
Wilt  thou  call  this  a  fast,  and  a  day  acceptable  to  Jahveh  ? 
Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  choose,  says  Jahveh  ? 
To  loose  the  fetters  of  injustice,  to  untie  the  bands  of  violence, 
To  set  at  liberty  those  who  are  crushed,  to  burst  every  yoke 

asunder. 
Is  it  not  to  break  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  to  bring  the  home- 
less into  thy  house  ; 
When  thou  seest  the  naked  to  cover  him,  and  to  hide  not  thyself 

from  thy  own  flesh  ? 
Then  will  thy  light  break  forth  as  the  dawn,  thy  wounds  will  be 

quickly  healed  over. 
Thy  righteousness  will  go  before  thee,  and  Jahveh's  glory  will  be 

thy  reward.^ 

The  writings  of  the  prophets  abound  in  such 
practical  expositions  of  religious  duty.  The  sins 
which  they  most  condemn  are  sins  of  inhumanity  to 
man.  Rarely  if  ever  do  they  condemn  absence  from 
church,  failure  in  sacrifice,  disregard  of  ordinances, 
or  even  lack  of  prayer.  What  they  condemn  is  in- 
justice and  impurity  and  cruelty.  Rarely  if  ever  do 
they  send  men  to  the  temple  or  to  the  sacrifice  for 
forgiveness.  "  Wash  you,  make  you  clean :  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine 
eyes  ;  cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well.  .  .  .  Come 

^  Isaiah  Iviii,  3-8 :  Gheyne's  translation. 


248  THE   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord : 
though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white 
as  snow ; "  this  is  the  burden  of  their  message.^ 
White  because  of  temple  and  sacrifice  and  priestly 
ceremonial  ?  No.  Because  of  ceasing  from  iniquity, 
or  as  another  prophet  expresses  it,  breaking  off 
sins  by  righteousness.^  The  preaching  of  the  pro- 
phets is  spiritual  because  the  message  is  derived 
from  God,  not  from  man.  It  is  practical  because  it 
is  applied  to  the  daily  affairs  of  daily  life. 

For  the  same  reason  it  is  dramatic.  These  pro- 
phets are  not  separated  from  humanity  because  they 
live  with  God ;  on  the  contrary,  the  more  they  live 
with  God  the  more  they  are  identified  with  human- 
ity ;  the  more  they  enter  into  the  secret  places  of 
the  Most  High,  the  more  they  enter  into  the  com- 
mon experiences  of  their  fellow  men.  Hence  they 
are  able  to  interpret  human  experience.  And  this 
interplay  of  the  human  experience  and  the  divine 
response  —  and  again  the  divine  message  and  the 
human  response  —  makes  the  prophetic  writings 
dramatic.  A  very  familiar  passage  in  Micah  may 
serve  to  illustrate  this  dramatic  element  and  at  the 
same  time  its  peculiar  character.  It  is  a  trialogue 
between  the  Prophet,  Jehovah,  and  the  People  : 

The  Prophet.  Hear  ye  now  what  the  Lord  saith: 
Arise,  contend  thou  before  the  mountains,  and  let  the 
hills  hear  thy  voice.  Hear,  O  ye  mountains,  the  Lord's 
controversy,  and  ye  enduring  foundations  of  the  earth  i 

I  Isaiah  i,  16-18.  «  Daniel  iv,  27. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    249 

for  the  Lord  hath  a  controversy  with  his  people,  and  he 
will  plead  with  Israel. 

Jehovah.  O  my  people,  what  have  I  done  unto  thee  ? 
and  wherein  have  I  wearied  thee  ?  testify  against  me.  For 
I  brought  thee  up  qut  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  redeemed 
thee  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  ;  and  I  sent  before  thee 
Moses,  Aaron,  and  Miriam.  O  my  people,  remember  now 
what  Balak  king  of  Moab  consulted,  and  what  Balaam 
the  son  of  Beor  answered  him ;  remember  from  Shittim 
unto  Gilgal,  that  ye  may  know  the  righteous  acts  of  the 
Lord. 

The  People.  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord, 
and  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ?  shall  I  come  be- 
fore him  with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old? 
Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or 
with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  shall  I  give  my  first- 
born for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the 
sin  of  my  soul  ? 

The  Prophet.  He  hath  shewed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good ;  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to 
do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God.  1 

Not  less  strikingly  dramatic  is  the  opening  of 
the  prophecy  of  the  "  Second  Isaiah,"  the  "  Great 
Unknown,"  —  a  dialogue  between  the  Divine  Voice 
commanding  the  Prophet,  and  the  Prophet  asking 
for  his  message  and  expostulating  with  the  com- 
mand, and  finally  receiving  the  word  which  he  is 
to  proclaim. 

The  Voice.  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith 
your  God.    Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry 

1  Micah  vi,  1-8. 


260  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

unto  her,  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that  her  in- 
iquity is  pardoned  ;  that  she  hath  received  of  the  Lord's 
hand  double  for  all  her  sins.  The  voice  of  one  that 
crieth,  Prepare  ye  in  the  wilderness  the  way  of  the  Lord, 
make  straight  in  the  desert  a  high  way  for  our  God. 
Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and 
hUl  shall  be  made  low :  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made 
straight,  and  the  rough  places  plain  :  and  the  glory  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  to- 
gether :  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.  The 
voice  of  one  saying,   Cry. 

The  Prophet.  What  shall  I  cry  ?  All  flesh  is  grass, 
and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the 
field  :  the  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth ;  because 
the  breath  of  the  Lord  bloweth  upon  it:  surely  the 
people  is  grass. 

The  Voice.  The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth : 
but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever.^ 

This  prophet  has  felt  the  burden  of  his  time,  its 
sin,  its  penalty ;  and  he  has  seen  the  transitoriness 
of  Israel,  —  its  glory  passing  away,  its  city  in  ruins, 
its  temple  abandoned.  But  he  has  seen  more.  He 
has  seen  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  captivity 
of  Israel,  that  is,  in  the  punishment  of  the  Nation 
for  its  sins  and  in  the  redemption  which  he  sees 
approaching,  that  is,  in  the  divine  pardon  of  a  re- 
deemed people;  and  behind  this  transitoriness  of 
the  Nation's  glory,  and  behind  the  penalty  and  the 
pardon,  and  in  -both  penalty  and  pardon,  he  sees 
the  Eternal  working  out  his  plans  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  race  through  Israel. 

•     1  Isaiah  xl,  1-8. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    251 

The  Hebrew  prophets  saw  beneath  the  surface, 
and  therefore  they  saw  beyond  the  day.  They 
foretold  the  future  because  they  perceived  truly  the 
present.  They  understood  the  real  meaning  of  events, 
therefore  they  comprehended  the  trend  of  events. 
They  saw  that  God  is  in  human  history  working 
out  the  redemption  of  the  world ;  and  this  vision 
of  God  in  his  world  gave  them  a  foresight  as  to  the 
outcome  of  God's  work  in  the  final  issue  of  human 
history.  This  insight  gave  them  foresight  and  made 
them  foretellers.  They  were  foretellers  because  they 
were  forthtellers.  Because  they  spake  as  interpre- 
ters of  an  inward  vision  they  turned  their  faces  and 
the  faces  of  their  people  toward  the  future. 

And  as  this  spirit  gave  them  foresight,  so  it  gave 
them  hopefulness ;  because  it  was  the  foresight  of 
men  who  believed  that  the  moral  forces  are  greater 
than  aU  other  forces,  that  God  is  more  than  aU  they 
that  are  leagued  against  God.  They  were  hopeful 
for  their  Nation,  for  they  could  not  believe  that  the 
Nation  would  abandon  Jehovah  ;  and  when  finally 
they  were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Nation 
had  abandoned  Jehovah,  they  were  hopeful  for  a 
new  Nation  which  God  would  raise  up  and  through 
which  he  would  save  the  world.  Even  in  their  hours 
of  darkest  pessimism  they  were  optimists  ;  even  at 
the  time  when  they  beheld  the  ruin  of  the  destroyed 
Nation  they  still  hoped  for  the  redemption  of  man- 
kind. 

And  this  foresight  and  this  hopefulness  gave  them 


262  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

courage.  Jeremiah,  standing  for  God  and  God's 
truth,  as  he  sees  it,  facing  the  charge  that  he  has 
turned  traitor  to  his  country  and  is  a  friend  of  the 
Chaldeans,  because  he  sees  the  victory  of  the  Chal- 
deans, let  down  into  the  dungeon  and  lying  there 
in  the  mire,  and  stiU  maintaining  his  courage  and 
his  faith  in  God ;  Paul  rescued  from  the  mob  on 
the  floor  of  the  temple,  lifted  up,  bleeding,  dust- 
stained,  scarred,  and  standing  there  and  turning  to 
the  officer  to  ask,  "  May  I  not  speak  to  this  mob  ?  " 
and  on  those  temple  stairs  repeating  the  message  of 
a  redeemed  world  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,i 
—  where  shall  we  find  in  human  history  more  splen- 
did illustrations  of  magnificent  courage  than  in 
these  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New 
Testament  ? 

No  man  belongs  in  the  Christian  pulpit  unless 
he  is  the  successor  of  the  Prophets  and  the  Apos- 
tles, in  a  succession  not  given  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  not  ecclesiastical  or  organic,  a  succession 
spiritual,  a  succession  of  inheritance  of  the  spirit. 
If  a  man  is  to  do  his  work  as  a  Christian  minister, 
he  must  be  a  man  of  God  as  the  old  prophets  were 
men  of  God ;  he  must  interpret  him,  not  reflect  the 
sentiments  of  his  community ;  he  must  receive  into 
himself  the  message  which  God  gives  him  and  make 
it  a  part  of  his  life  ;  he  must  make  that  conscious- 
ness of  his  message  the  secret  and  source  of  his 
power,  and  give  it  forth  with  the  spiritual  vitality 
1  Jer.  xxxii,  2-5 ;  xxxiii,  1-3 ;  Acts  xxii,  30-39. 


SOME  MINISTERS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME    253 

which  comes  only  from  an  experience  of  God's  love, 
in  faith  and  hope ;  he  must  make  it  a  practical 
message,  dealing  with  the  actual  scenes,  the  actual 
struggles,  the  actual  life  of  the  people  of  this  twen- 
tieth century  ;  aud  he  must  have  the  foresight  that 
comes  from  insight ;  he  must  dare  march  forward  ; 
he  must  be  a  leader  in  that  great  movement  the 
end  of  which  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  power  of 
which  is  the  power  of  God,  and  the  ministers  to 
which  must  be  ministers  of  God. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST:   HIS 
METHODS 

In  this  and  the  succeeding  chapter  I  purpose  to 
consider  what  light  the  example  and  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ  throw  upon  the  subject  which  the 
reader  has  been  invited  to  examine  with  me  in  this 
volume,  namely,  the  true  methods  of  the  Christian 
ministry  and  the  secret  of  its  power.  Even  those 
who  do  not  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Master  whose 
example  and  instruction  possess  a  divine  authority, 
may  yet  well  think  him  the  greatest  religious  teacher 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  his  methods  and  spirit 
therefore  worthy  of  the  most  thorough  and  reverent 
study.  He  "  has  founded  absolute  religion,"  Ernest 
Kenan  says.  "  The  genius  of  nineteen  coming  cen- 
turies," Goldwin  Smith  calls  him.^  In  this  chapter 
I  ask  the  reader  to  consider  the  methods,  in  the 
next  chapter  the  substance  of  the  teaching  of  this 
founder  of  absolute  religion,  this  genius  of  nineteen 
coming  centuries. 

^  "Pure  Christianity  still  presents  itself,  after  eighteen  cen- 
turies, in  the  character  of  a  universal  and  eternal  religion.  .  .  . 
The  foundation  of  true  religion  is  verily  his  (Christ's)  work.  .  .  . 
All  that  may  be  attempted  outside  this  grand  and  noble  Christian 
tradition  will  be  sterile. . . .  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  has  founded 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JEStJS  CHRIST       255 

In  entering  upon  this  theme  three  cautions  are 
necessary. 

1.  No  man  can  fully  understand  or  adequately 
interpret  Jesus  Christ ;  certainly  I  do  not  assume 
so  to  do.  To  me  he  is  the  supreme  revelation  in  the 
terms  of  a  human  experience  of  the  Infinite  and  the 
Eternal,  the  inspirer  and  the  ideal  for  all  men  and 
for  all  ages ;  for  the  first  century  and  the  twentieth 
century,  for  men  and  for  women,  for  the  Occi- 
dental and  for  the  Oriental,  for  the  prince  and 
for  the  peasant,  for  the  philosopher  and  for  the 
unlearned,  for  the  aged  and  for  the  schoolboy,  for 
the  poet  and  for  the  man  of  affairs,  for  the  mer- 
chant, the  mechanic,  the  farmer,  the  soldier,  the 
lawyer,  the  statesman,  —  in  short,  for  men  of  every 
temperament,  every  vocation,  and  every  type  of 
character.  Of  course  he  who  believes  this  cannot 
believe  himself  capable  of  furnishing  an  adequate 
interpretation  of  Jesus  Christ.  All  that  he  can  hope 
or  even  desire  to  do  is  to  give  one  man's  view  of 
Christ.  Even  that  view  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  adequately  to  present  within  the  limits  of  these 
two  chapters.  For  half  a  century  I  have  been  try- 
absolute  reli^on." — Renan:  The  Life  of  Jesus,  pp.  410,  411. 
"  The  Founder  of  Christendom,  having  no  home  of  his  own 
wherein  to  lay  his  head,  goes  to  find  shelter  for  the  night  beneath 
some  disciple's  lonely  roof.  Little  did  the  owner  of  that  roof 
dream  that  it  was  receiving  as  a  guest  the  genius  of  nineteen 
coming  centuries;  perhaps  of  the  whole  future  of  humanity, 
unless  the  Spiritual  as  well  as  the  Supernatural  is  doomed,  and 
science  is  henceforth  to  reign  alone."  —  Gbldwin  Smith:  The 
Founder  of  Christendom,  p.  44. 


266  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ing  to  apply  the  precepts  of  Christ  to  the  various 
problems  of  life,  individual  and  social,  and  to  learn 
myself,  and  teach  others,  how  the  spirit  of  Christ 
carried  into  life  will  make  it  harmonious,  hopeful, 
joyous,  divine.  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that  I 
could  put  into  a  few  pages  the  entire  product  of 
fifty  years  of  serious  thinking. 

2.  It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  we  have  no 
biography  of  Jesus  Christ ;  we  have  only  memora- 
bilia. They  do  not  afford  a  continuous  history  of 
his  life,  nor  represent  any  attempt  to  trace  out  the 
development  of  his  doctrine,  or  his  own  intellectual 
or  spiritual  growth.  Of  the  thirty-three  years  of 
his  life  we  have,  excepting  for  the  account  of  his 
birth  and  one  incident  in  his  boyhood,  only  the 
record  of  three  years,  and  this  record  only  in 
fragmentary  reports.  In  the  study  of  these  reports 
there  is  constant  danger,  on  the  one  hand,  of  draw- 
ing too  large  deductions  from  slight  premises,  of 
reading  into  Christ's  life  and  teachings  our  own 
prejudices  and  making  him  sponsor  for  our  own 
thoughts;  on  the  other  hand,  danger  of  passing 
carelessly  by  incidents  and  sayings  which  have  in 
them  matter  worthy  of  our  careful  attention.  To 
preserve  the  golden  mean  between  these  two  dan- 
gers is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible. 

3.  We  have  also  to  bear  in  mind  that  not  even 
the  example  and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  are  to  be 
blindly  followed.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  teach  in 
order  that  he  might  serve  as  a  substitute  for  think- 


THE  MINISTRY'  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        257 

ing,  but  that  he  might  inspire  us  to  think.  We 
need  not  take  the  Lord's  Supper  in  an  upper 
chamber  because  he  took  it  in  an  upper  chamber, 
or  reclining  because  he  reclined,  or  think  that  we 
may  not  be  married  because  he  was  unmarried,  or 
that  our  ministry  must  be  an  itinerant  ministry 
because  he  was  not  settled  over  a  parish.  We 
follow  a  great  leader,  not  by  thinking  his  thoughts 
over  again,  or  doing  again  the  deeds  he  did, — 
we  follow  him  by  carrying  into  our  own  age  the 
spirit  which  he  carried  into  his,  and  applying  to  our 
own  circumstances  the  principles  which  he  applied 
to  the  circumstances  of  his  life.  To  understand 
Christ's  principles,  to  appreciate  Christ's  spirit,  and 
then  to  apply  those  principles  and  exemplify  that 
spirit  in  our  own  life  —  this  is  to  follow  Christ. 

With  these  preliminary  cautions  borne  in  mind,  I 
ask  the  reader  to  consider  with  me  in  this  and  the 
succeeding  chapter  what  were  the  methods  of  Christ 
as  a  preacher,  what  was  the  secret  of  his  power, 
and  what  was  the  substance  of  his  teaching,  hoping 
that  the  hints  given  in  these  chapters  may  incite 
the  reader  to  make  a  life  study  of  the  Four  Gos- 
pels for  himself,  in  an  endeavor  to  secure  more 
satisfactory  answers  to  these  questions. 

Certain  negative  conclusions  respecting  Christ's 
method  seem  very  evident. 

He  did  not  depend  for  his  power  on  dramatic 
effects.  He  did  not  act  upon  the  counsel  of  De- 
mosthenes, who  declared  that  action  was  the  first. 


268  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  second,  and  the  third  condition  of  oratory. 
He  did  not  seek  to  win  the  attention  of  the  people 
by  any  form  of  dramatic  art  or  artifice.  John  B. 
Gough  portrayed  in  action  and  in  dialect  every 
character  he  described,  and  acted  upon  the  plat- 
form every  incident  he  narrated.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  with  unconscious  skiU,  imitated  every  act 
which  he  used  in  illustration.  We  can  be  quite 
sure  that  this  was  not  Christ's  method,  because  he 
habitually  taught  sitting  down.  He  went  into  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth  to  preach,  the  eyes  of  all 
them  that  were  in  the  synagogue  were  fastened  on 
him,  and  he  "  sat  down  "  to  preach  to  them.  He 
went  into  the  mountain,  the  multitudes  followed 
him  to  listen  to  his  inaugural  sermon,  and  "  when 
he  was  set  "  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them. 
He  came  into  the  temple,  all  the  people  came  unto 
him,  "and  he  sat  down  and  taught  them."  The 
people  pressed  upon  him  at  the  lake  of  Gennesaret, 
and  he  entered  into  a  boat,  and  thrust  it  out  a  little 
from  the  land,  and  "  sat  down  and  taught  the  people 
out  of  the  boat."  ^ 

Nor  did  he  move  them  by  the  oratorical  splen- 
dor of  his  addresses.  These  addresses  had  none  of 
the  literary  characteristics  of  great  orations.  They 
were  not  musical ;  there  are  no  cadences  in  them. 
They  were  not  made  splendid  by  beautiful  orna- 
mentation; they  are  without  rich  coloring.  They 
were  without  striking  introductions  to  attract  at- 

*  Luke  iv,  20 ;  Matt,  v,  1 ;  John  viii,  2 ;  Luke  v,  3. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        269 

tention,  and  without  eloquent  peroration  to  win 
applause;  indeed,  one  can  hardly  think  of  them 
as  having  ever  been  received  with  applause.  With 
very  few  exceptions  they  were  not  aflame  with  pas- 
sion. They  were  simple  in  style  as  in  substance, 
spontaneous,  unartificial,  practical  and  instructional 
rather  than  imaginative  and  emotional.  No  school- 
boy wishing  to  find  a  fit  piece  of  literature  for  a 
declamation  would  think  of  looking  among  Christ's 
discourses  for  a  suitable  oration  for  oratorical  dis- 
play. Christ's  discourses  are  not  declamatory,  they 
are  not  oratorical,  they  neither  surge  with  passion 
nor  scintillate  with  antithesis  nor  sparkle  with  wit 
and  humor.  No  teacher  of  rhetoric  would  go  to 
them  except  for  examples  of  lucidity  and  sim- 
plicity. They  are  simple,  conversational,  almost 
colloquial. 

Nor  was  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ,  primarily, 
intellectual.  The  interest  which  he  aroused  was  not 
dependent  on  skillful  analysis  and  dialectical  skill. 
He  did  not  play  before  men  a  game  of  chess,  setting 
thought  against  thought  with  check  and  counter- 
check, while  men  looked  on  to  see  how  the  game 
would  end.  There  is  very  little  of  the  kind  of 
intellectual  interest  in  reading  the  discourses  of 
Jesus  Christ  which  the  scholar  finds  in  reading  the 
dialogues  of  Plato.  A  profound  philosophy  of  life 
underlies  his  teaching,  but  his  teaching  is  not  the 
exhibition  or  unfolding  of  a  system  of  philosophy. 
There  is  little  in  common  in  the  method  of  the 


260  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

teaching  between  Jesus  Christ  and  Hegel  or  Kant 
or  Calvin  or  Edwards.^ 

Most  of  his  teaching  was  conversational ;  some 
scholars  think  it  was  all  conversational.  Probably 
it  was  largely  fragmentary ;  certainly  it  comes  to 
us  in  fragmentary  reports.  It  is  mainly  coUoquial 
—  talk  with  men,  rather  than  addresses  to  men. 
Christ  receives  their  inquiries  and  gives  his  reply, 
or  seeks  their  responses  to  his  own  inquiries.  It  is 
often  dialogue  in  fact,  when  it  is  not  so  in  form,  — 
an  interchange  of  thought  with  thought,  of  life 
with  life.  On  even  the  most  conservative  interpre- 
tation of  the  Gospels,  there  are  not  more  than  &ve 
discourses  that  can  properly  be  called  sermons,  of 
which  we  have  any  report  in  the  Gospels.  These 
are  the  sermon  at  Nazareth,  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  the  parables  at  the  seashore,  the  sermon  on 
the  Bread  of  Life,  and  the  Discourse  on  the  Last 
Day .2  The  parables  by  the  seashore  I  believe  to 
have  been  given  on  different  occasions,  though  at 
the  same  period  of  his  ministry  ;  the  other  sermons 
above  referred  to  I  believe  to  be  real  discourses, 
not  merely  collections  of  apothegmatic  sayings  ;  but 
upon  this  point  scholars  are  not  agreed. 

And  yet,  while  he  taught  in  conversational 
forms,  and  in  apparently  fragmentary  utterances, 
he  dealt  with  the  greatest  problems  of  human  life. 

^  But  see  further  on  this  aspect  of  his  teaching,  post,  pp.  262-264. 
2  Luke  iv,  16-32 ;  Matt  v,  vi,  vii;  Luke  vi,  17-49;  John  vi, 
25-71 ;  Matt.  xxiv. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       261 

The  questions  which  he  discussed  are  such  as  these : 
What  is  the  object  of  life  ?  That  question  he 
answers  in  the  sermon  at  Nazareth.  We  are  here 
to  serve  one  another,  to  lift  men  up,  to  comfort,  to 
console,  to  illumine,  to  instruct,  to  redeem ;  not  to 
be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister.  What  is  the 
secret  of  happiness  ?  That  question  he  answers  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Character  is  the  secret 
of  happiness.  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  the 
meek,  the  merciful,  the  pure  in  heart,  the  peace- 
makers. Not  what  we  have  but  what  we  are  deter- 
mines our  happiness.  What  is  the  secret  of  char- 
acter ?  How  shall  I  possess  a  holiness  (or  whole- 
ness or  healthf ulness)  that  will  make  me  blessed  ? 
That  question  he  answers  in  the  sermon  on  the 
bread  of  life.  The  secret  is  communion  with  God, 
fellowship  with  him,  feeding  upon  him,  making  him 
the  substance  of  our  life,  the  nourishment  of  our 
soul.  What  is  the  destiny  of  man,  the  issue  of  life, 
the  outcome  of  this  great  drama  of  history  of  which 
we  are  a  part  ?  That  he  answers  in  his  Discourse 
on  the  Last  Day.  It  is  the  revelation  of  God,  such 
a  revelation  that  the  deaf  will  hear,  the  blind  wiU 
see,  the  dull  will  recognize. 

Or  turn  from  these  discourses  to  his  conversa- 
tions. These  also  are  on  great  themes.  Nicodemus 
comes  to  him  by  night.  "  Rabbi,"  he  says,  "  we 
know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God  :  for 
no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  doest, 
except  God  be  with  him."   Christ  instantly  turns 


26SS:  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

the  conversation  into  a  new  channel.  It  is  not,  he 
teUs  him,  a  right  opinion  about  miracles,  nor  a 
right  opinion  about  myself  that  you  need ;  you  need 
a  new  life  coming  down  from  above.  He  talks 
with  the  woman  at  the  well,  and  from  a  simple  re- 
quest for  a  drink  of  water  turns  the  conversation 
into  one  of  the  prof oundest  discourses  respecting 
the  nature  and  source  of  spiritual  life.^  Or,  from 
the  conversations,  turn  to  his  parables.  They  are 
never  mere  dramatic  pictures  to  catch  the  attention 
and  arouse  the  interest  for  the  moment ;  they  are 
interpretations  of  great  spiritual  truths.  In  the 
parables  of  the  Good  Samaritan  and  Dives  and 
Lazarus,  he  exhibits  the  true  test  of  character ;  in 
the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  he  exhibits  the 
difference  between  the  holiness  that  forgives  sin 
and  the  holiness  that  only  hates  and  resents  it ;  in 
the  parable  of  the  publican  and  the  Pharisee,  the 
difference  between  the  holiness  that  is  satisfied 
with  past  achievement  and  that  which  aspires  to  a 
worthier  future.^ 

Though  in  form  fragmentary,  in  fact  Christ's 
teaching  was  systematic.  It  may  be  true  that 
"  Jesus,  so  far  as  we  can  conclude  from  our  sources, 
has  never  aimed  in  any  single  discourse  or  any 
group  of  connected  discourses  at  laying  down  his 
doctrine  in  systematic  form ;  '*  ^  certainly  his  teach- 

1  John  iii,  1-12,  iv,  1-30. 

2  Luke  X,  25-37,  xvi,  19-31,  xv,  11-32,  xviu,  10-14. 
8  Wendt:   The  Teaching  of  Jesus,  p.  107. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       263 

ing  is  in  its  form  the  farthest  possible  removed 
from  the  systematic  theology  of  a  Calvin,  an  Ed- 
wards, a  Park,  or  a  Hodge;  but  underlying  his 
teaching  is  a  system.  He  does  not  formulate  it, 
but  it  exists.  He  presents  no  isolated  truths,  half 
thought  out ;  eveiy  truth  which  he  presents  runs 
its  roots  down  and  finds  connection  with  every 
other  truth.  For  nineteen  centuries  his  disciples 
have  been  studying  his  teachings ;  they  have  gotten 
some  doctrines  out  of  his  teachings  which  are  not 
there,  and  they  have,  doubtless,  failed  to  get  some 
doctrines  out  of  his  teachings  which  are  there ; 
but,  despite  their  conflicting  prepossessions  and 
temperaments,  they  have  agreed  in  finding  certain 
great  fimdamental  truths  in  his  ministry.  Roman 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  Calvinist  and  Arminian, 
Episcopalian  and  Congregationalist,  orthodox  and 
heterodox,  bitterly  as  they  have  fought  one  another 
on  certain  questions  of  doctrine,  heartily  agree  with 
one  another  in  certain  fundamental  faiths.  They 
could  not  have  thus  agreed  in  discovering  a  sys^ 
tem  underlying  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  if 
no  system  was  there.  Imperfectly  understood  by 
his  disciples,  imperfectly  reported  by  them,  con- 
stantly misinterpreted  since,  used  by  combatants 
as  an  arsenal  for  weapons  of  offense  or  defense, 
sharply  criticised  by  skeptics  of  every  type  in  all 
ages  of  the  world,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
more  universally  honored,  more  profoundly  rever- 
enced, and  on  the  whole  more  loyally  followed  than 


264  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ever  before  in  the  world's  history.  This  could  not 
be  if  it  had  not  unity.  Teaching  which  is  but  a 
series  of  disjecta  memhra  could  possess  no  such 
immortality. 

But  it  was  not  the  object  of  Jesus  Christ  to  ex- 
hibit or  maintain  a  system.  He  did  not  teach  for 
the  purpose  of  inculcating  a  philosophy ;  it  was  not 
his  aim  to  found  a  school  of  thought.  Still  less  did 
he  seek  to  give  specific  rules  for  the  regulation  of 
conduct ;  it  was  not  his  aim  to  found  a  school  of 
ethics.  Both  truth  and  rules  of  conduct  were  in- 
strumental ;  the  end  of  all  his  teaching  was  the  pro- 
duction of  character.  Thus,  his  preaching  was  not 
in  form  philosophical  or  ethical ;  it  was  vital,  and 
aimed  at  changing  the  sources  of  life,  that  is,  at 
changing  the  character,  not  merely  at  the  forma- 
tion of  opinions  or  the  regulation  of  conduct.  He 
therefore  never  measured  men  by  their  ecclesiastical 
practices,  their  intellectual  opinions,  or  their  emo- 
tional states.  He  never  asked  them  whether  they 
went  to  church,  or  what  they  believed,  or  how  they 
felt.  He  never  portrayed  men  as  good  because  of 
their  ecclesiastical  practices  or  the  orthodoxy  of 
their  opinions  or  the  excitation  of  their  emotions. 
He  never  portrayed  them  as  bad  because  they  did 
not  conform  to  ecclesiastical  rules  or  orthodox  stand- 
ards, or  did  not  possess  prescribed  emotions.  His 
measurements  of  men  were  always  real,  practical, 
vital ;  character  was  the  end  of  his  teaching,  con- 
duct was  his  measure  of  character. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        265 

His  preaching,  therefore,  is  concrete.  His  illus- 
trations are  never  mere  ornaments,  introduced  to 
relieve  a  wearied  audience  or  lighten  the  strain 
upon  their  attention ;  they  are  concrete  expressions 
of  vital  truth ;  and  the  only  truths  with  which  he 
concerns  himself'  are  those  capable  of  concrete  inter- 
pretation. An  abstract  truth  which  exists  only  in 
the  realm  of  pure  intellect  has  apparently  for  Jesus 
Christ  no  interest ;  it  certainly  has  no  place  in  his 
teaching.  The  only  Christianity  which  Jesus  Christ 
inculcated  was  applied  Christianity. 

Seeking  thus  to  change  the  sources  of  character, 
he  seeks  to  make  men  think  for  themselves,  answer 
their  own  questions,  or  ask  questions  of  themselves 
which  they  had  not  thought  to  ask  before.  A  lawyer 
asks  him,  "Who  is  my  neighbor?"  Christ  tells 
him  the  story  of  the  good  Samaritan,  and  then 
returns  his  question  to  him,  "  Which  now  of  these 
three,  thinkest  thou,  was  neighbor  unto  him  that 
fell  among  thieves?"  He  tells  the  story  of  two 
sons,  one  of  whom  promised  to  work  in  his  father's 
vineyard  but  did  no  work,  the  other  of  whom  re- 
fused to  work  in  his  father's  vineyard  and  repented 
and  went  to  work,  and  then  puts  to  his  auditors  the 
question,  "  Whether  of  them  twain  did  the  wiU  of 
his  father?"  A  young  man  comes  running  in  his 
eagerness,  kneels  to  him  reverently,  and  in  words 
acknowledging  his  authority  says,  "  Good  Master, 
what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?"  Christ 
throws   him   back   upon   himself:    What  do  you 


266  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

mean  by  "good  Master"?  Why  do  you  call  me 
good  ?  and  the  young  man  is  silent ;  he  has  used  the 
phrase  without  significance. ^  This  method  is  charac- 
teristic with  Christ.  He  seeks  by  concrete  statement, 
by  parabolic  illustration,  by  searching  question,  to 
get  behind  the  intellectual  conception,  behind  the 
ethical  rule,  behind  the  ecclesiastical  formulary, 
into  the  very  springs  and  sources  of  man's  being. 

This  combination  of  profundity  of  thought  and 
concreteness  of  statement  gives  his  sayings  a  hid- 
den meaning.  His  thoughts  are  seed  thoughts.  His 
teaching  abounds  in  epigrams.  Whole  systems  of 
truth  lie  concealed  in  them.  "  I  say  unto  you,  Love 
your  enemies  "  has  in  it  the  secret  of  the  Christian 
system  of  penology.  The  function  of  society  is  not 
to  punish  but  to  redeem  the  enemies  of  society. 
"  Say,  Our  Father "  has  in  it  a  complete  system 
of  theology.  What  true  fatherhood  means  to  us 
on  earth  interprets  the  relationship  of  God  to  hu- 
manity. "  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  "  contains  the 
whole  secret  of  human  development.  Yoke  yourself 
to  God  and  your  work  is  easy.  This  is  the  secret 
of  civilization,  —  that  we  have  learned  how  in  the 
natural  realm  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  divine  forces 
in  nature  and  work  cooperatively  with  them.  This 
is  the  secret  of  Christian  development,  which  we 
shall  have  acquired  when  we  have  learned  how  to 
enter  into  spiritual  companionship  with  God  and 
work  in  the  spiritual  realm  cooperatively  with  him. 
^  Luke  z,  36 ;  Matt  zzi,  31,  zriii,  17. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       267 

This  compacting  of  fundamental  principles  of 
life  into  brief  and  pregnant  aphorisms  gives  great 
crispness  of  style  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  "With 
what  measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be  measured  unto 
you."  "  Many  that  are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the 
last  first."  "  Many  are  called  but  few  are  chosen." 
"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for 
the  Sabbath."  "He  that  is  greatest  among  you 
shall  be  your  servant."  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive."  The  teachings  of  Jesus  abound 
with  aphorisms  of  this  description.^  They  consti- 
tute more  than  a  characteristic  of  style,  they  are 
evidences  of  profoundness  of  thought  and  careful- 
ness of  preparation.  Such  coin  as  these  are  not 
minted  without  study  of  form  as  well  as  of  sub- 
stance, of  expression  as  well  as  of  truth.  It  is 
for  the  preacher  to  ponder  these  aphoristic  sen- 
tences, meditate  upon  them,  search  for  the  truth 
which  is  contained  in  them,  study  the  life  that  is 
about  him,  and  by  this  combined  study  learn  how 
to  apply  the  truths  concealed  in  these  aphorisms  to 
the  circumstances  and  conditions  of  modern  life. 

There  are  also  certain  elements  in  Christ's  life 
which  bear  directly  on  his  teaching,  and  which,  in 
any  consideration  of  him  as  a  teacher,  must  be 
taken  account  of. 

First  is  his  industry.   Judged  simply  as  other 

^  Matt,  vii,  2,  xix,  80,  xx,  16,  xxiii,  11 ;  Mark  ii,  27 ;  Acts  xx, 
35.  Wendt,  in  The  Teaching  of  Jesus,  gives  three  pages  of  say- 
ings of  this  description,  vol.  i,  pp.  139-142. 


268  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

men  are  judged,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  in 
the  history  of  the  human  race  has  accomplished  any- 
thing commensurable  with  what  Jesus  Christ  accom- 
plished in  the  three  years  into  which  his  life  ministry 
was  condensed.  But  his  habits  of  industry  antedated 
his  public  ministry.  He  began  life  working  as  a 
carpenter  at  his  father's  bench.  His  appreciation 
of  nature,  his  familiarity  with  the  Bible,  and  his 
profound  knowledge  of  life,  all  indicate  a  thought- 
ful boyhood.  In  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  he 
gathered  workingmen  about  him,  and  from  them 
chose  his  apostles.  An  itinerant  ministry  was  his, 
and  his  journeys  were  all  performed  on  foot ;  he 
walked  hundreds  of  miles  in  the  course  of  his  life. 
Mark  has  given  us  the  story  of  one  of  his  days.^ 
It  was  a  typical  day ;  multiplied,  it  affords  a  picture 
of  his  busy  life.  It  is  said  of  him  at  one  period  of 
his  ministry  that  he  had  not  time  so  much  as  to 
eat.2  ^j^^  Ijjg  work  was  of  a  kind  that  exhausts 
men;  and  it  exhausted  him.  Virtue  went  out  of 
him,  it  is  said.^  He  was  so  worn  by  the  calls  upon 
his  sympathies  that  bystanders  looking  on  him  said 
to  one  another.  We  see  now  what  the  prophet  meant 
when  he  said  of  the  Messiah,  "  Himself  took  our 
infirmities,  and  bare  our  sicknesses."  *  These  evi- 
dences of  his  industry  lie  on  the  surface  of  his  life. 
But  as  the  greater  part  of  an  iceberg  lies  below  the 

1  Mark  i,  21-45. 

2  Mark  vi,  31,  iii,  20;  Matt,  viii,  20. 
«  Luke  vi,  19,  viii,  46 ;  Mark  v,  30. 

*  Matt,  viii,  17. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       269 

water  line,  so  the  greater  part  and  the  best  part  of 
a  teacher's  industry  lies  out  of  the  world's  sight. 
Christ  could  not  have  taught  the  truths  he  taught 
without  much  time  given  to  meditating ;  he  could  not 
have  been  the  master  of  the  Hebrew  literature,  not 
of  its  words  only,  but  of  its  inner  spiritual  meaning, 
without  much  study  of  that  literature  ;  and  he  could 
not  have  thrown  out  those  aphoristic  sentences  that 
sparkle  like  diamonds,  those  perfectly  wrought  par- 
ables, profound  in  the  truth  they  reveal,  perfect 
in  the  lucidity  and  simplicity  of  the  form  in  which 
it  is  revealed,  without  much  study  expended  both 
upon  the  substance  and  the  expression. 

As  a  teacher  he  was  free,  unconstrained,  uncon- 
ventional. He  neither  resented  the  conventions  of 
his  time  nor  submitted  to  them.  He  used  them  when 
they  were  useful ;  he  disregarded  them  when  they 
interfered  with  his  work.  He  preached  in  the  syn- 
agogues as  long  as  the  synagogues  would  permit  him 
to  do  so.  The  fact  that  his  teaching  was  revolu- 
tionary of  the  religious  opinions  of  the  rulers  of 
the  synagogues  did  not  deter  him  from  using  their 
pulpits  so  long  as  their  pulpits  were  open  to  him. 
When  the  rulers  thought  to  prevent  his  preaching 
by  prohibiting  him  the  only  recognized  religious 
gathering-place  of  the  time,  he  found  other  places 
in  which  to  preach.  A  house,  a  field,  a  shore,  a  hill- 
side served  as  a  synagogue;  a  seat,  a  stone,  the 
prow  of  a  boat,  served  as  a  pulpit.  And  he  never 
waited  for  a  congregation.  Sometimes  he  talked  to  a 


270  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

single  woman  coming  to  the  well  to  draw  water; 
sometimes  to  a  houseful,  while  others  crowded  about 
the  doors  and  the  windows ;  sometimes  to  a  group  of 
fishermen  casually  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  ;  some- 
times to  the  crowds  passing  and  repassing  in  the 
outer  court  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem;  some- 
times to  thousands  who  had  flocked  from  the  vil- 
lages to  hear  him  on  some  plain  among  the  hills 
of  Galilee.  Any  soul  served  as  a  congregation, 
any  spot  as  a  church,  any  opportunity  as  a  sacred 
occasion.^ 

The  reason  for  this  it  is  easy  to  see :  he  had  a  mis- 
sion to  fulfiU,  a  message  to  deliver.  After  a  day 
of  ministry  his  friends  find  him  in  his  retreat,  and 
desire  to  bring  him  back  to  enjoy  the  sweets  of 
popularity.  He  refuses.  "  Let  us  go  into  the  next 
towns,"  he  says,  "  that  I  may  preach  there  also,  for 
therefore  came  I  forth."  His  message  was  the 
expression  of  his  own  life,  and  its  expression  was 
necessary  to  him.  He  foresees  what  it  will  cost,  not 
to  him  only,  but  to  his  friends  and  to  the  world, 
and  he  shrinks  from  these  consequences,  yet  he 
cannot,  will  not  draw  back.  "  I  am  come  to  send 
fire  on  the  earth, "  he  says :  "  and  what  will  I  if 
it  be  already  kindled?  I  have  a  baptism  to  be 
baptized  with ;  and  how  am  I  straitened  till  it  be 
accomplished !  "  The  message  has  been  given  to  him 
by  his  Father,  and  he  cannot  be  still.  "  The  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you,"  he  says,  "  I  speak  not  of 

1  John  iv,  6, 7 ;  Mark  ii,  1, 2 ;  Luke  v,  1-3,  xx.  1;  Matt,  vi,  1. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       271 

myself :  but  the  Father  that  dweUeth  in  me,  he  doeth 
the  works."  The  mission  is  one  which  has  been 
laid  upon  him ;  and  he  cannot  lay  it  down  until  he 
can  say  to  his  Father,  "  I  have  finished  the  work 
which  thou  gavest  me  to  do."  ^ 

Because  his  ^message  was  the  expression  of  his 
life  it  was  emphasized  by  his  life.  His  actions  in- 
terpreted his  words.  "  I  am,"  he  said,  "  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life."  ^  He  bade  his  disciples  take 
no  thought  for  the  morrow.  He  took  none.  When 
the  multitude  was  hungry,  he  asked  what  provisions 
the  little  band  had  provided  for  their  own  use,  as 
one  who  had  given  himself  no  concern  before  upon 
the  subject,  then  gave  it  aU  away  to  the  throng 
who  attended  his  ministry,  in  seeming  oblivion  of 
his  own  needs,  in  real  trust  in  the  Father  who  cares 
for  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  the  lilies  of  the  field. 
He  bade  his  disciples  love  their  enemies  and  pray 
for  those  who  despitefully  used  them.  His  enemies 
he  loved.  His  last  words  to  the  disciple  who  be- 
trayed him  were  pathetic  words  of  friendly  reproach, 
—  a  final  effort  to  save  the  traitor  from  his  self- 
destruction,  and  not  in  vain,  since  they  awakened 
a  remorse  that  we  may  at  least  hope  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  true  repentance.^  Among  his  last  words 
was  a  prayer  for  the  forgiveness  of  those  who  crucified 

1  Mark  i,  38 ;  Luke  xii,  49,  50 ;  John  sdv,  10,  xvii,  4. 

2  John  xiv,  6. 

8  Mai-k  vi,  34-41 ;  Matt,  v,  44,  vi,  25-31 ;  Luke  xxii,  48,  xxiii, 
34. 


272  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

him.  Thus  Christ  lived  as  he  preached,  because 
he  preached  what  he  was,  —  no  reporter  of  other 
men's  thoughts,  no  repeater  of  other  men's  faiths 
was  he,  but  the  exponent  of  his  own  innermost, 
sacred,  divine  life. 

This  inner  life  of  his,  compelHng  his  lips  to  utter 
and  his  hands  to  do,  inspired  a  courage  which  halted 
at  no  danger  and  hesitated  at  no  obstacle.  I  send 
you  forth,  he  said  to  his  apostles,  as  sheep  in  the 
midst  of  wolves ;  be  wise ;  be  harmless,  but  fear 
not.  Going  himself  as  a  sheep  in  the  midst  of 
wolves,  neither  courting  danger  nor  avoiding  it,  he 
never  feared.  In  vain  his  mother  and  his  brethren 
endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  the  seemingly  un- 
equal contest  into  which  he  had  entered  with  the 
ruling  powers  of  his  time.  In  vain  his  disciples 
warned  him  of  the  danger  of  his  death  and  besought 
him  to  avoid  it.  History  affords  no  more  dramatic 
illustration  of  heroism  than  is  afforded  by  his  going 
up  to  Jerusalem  to  his  passion,  with  the  shame  and 
spitting,  the  betrayal,  the  mock  trial,  the  angry 
mob,  the  crucifixion  all  before  him ;  and  there  in 
the  Temple  courts  challenging  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  with  an  invective  against  their  false  re- 
ligious pretense  covering  evil  hearts  and  evil  deeds, 
as  a  whited  sepulchre  covers  "  dead  men's  bones 
and  all  uncleanness."  Yet  parallel  to  it  is  that 
other  scarcely  less  dramatic  incident  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  life,  when  he  turned  the  applause  of  his 
Nazarene  congregation  into  murderous  hate  by  his 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        273 
rebuke  of  tlie  national  sin  of  provincial  pride  and 


narrowness.^ 

Of  the  essential  spirit  of  his  ministry  —  its  spirit 
of  self-control  surpassing  all  asceticism,  its  spirit  of 
conscience  surpassing  all  Puritanism,  its  spirit  of 
piety  surpassing'  all  mysticism,  its  spirit  of  hope- 
fulness surpassing  all  optimism  —  I  shall  speak  in 
the  next  chapter.  Yet  the  most  important  charac- 
teristic in  the  method  of  his  ministry  would  be 
ignored  if  I  were  to  pass  by  in  silence  his  habit  of 
retreating  from  time  to  time,  not  only  from  the 
crowd  but  from  his  nearest  and  most  intimate 
friends,  to  be  alone  with  himseK  and  his  God. 
"  When  thou  prayest,"  he  said  to  his  disciples, 
"  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy 
door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret."  His 
closet  was  sometimes  the  wild  eastern  shore  of  the 
Sea  of  Galilee,  sometimes  a  recess  high  up  among  the 
hills,  sometimes  a  garden  in  the  environs  of  Jeru- 
salem.2  Eager  as  he  was  to  help  men,  thronged 
as  he  was  by  men  eager  for  his  help,  with  a  work 
too  large  to  be  accomplished  in  a  lifetime,  and  a 
life  too  short  for  anything  but  the  merest  begin- 
ning of  that  work,  yet  he  never  was  so  busy  that 
he  could  not  get  away  from  men  for  hours  whose 
occupation  is  hidden  from  our  vision,  and  can  be 
interpreted  only  by  our  experience.    How  intimate 

1  Matt.  X,  16 ;  Mark  iii,  21, 31^5,  viii,  31-33,  x,  32 ;  John  xi,  16  ; 
Matt,  xxiii,  13-39  ;  Luke  iv,  16-32. 

2  Matt,  vi,  6 ;  Luke  v,  16,  vi,  12 ;  Mark  i,  35,  xiv,  32-35. 


274  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

was  his  companionship  with  his  Father  in  those 
hours,  how  far  back  into  the  ages  which  preceded 
his  birth  that  companionship  may  have  reached,  it 
is  not  for  us  to  know.  But  this  we  may  surely 
know,  —  that  we  who  are  trying  to  do  Christ's  work 
in  Christ's  way,  whose  aspiration  it  is  to  emulate 
his  industry,  his  freedom,  his  spontaneity,  his  real- 
ity, his  courage,  his  self-control,  his  conscientious- 
ness, his  piety,  and  his  hopefulness,  must  have  our 
hours  of  solitude  that  are  also  hours  of  most  inti- 
mate companionship,  our  hours  of  silence  and  repose, 
given  not  to  study,  not  even  to  petition,  but  to  that 
conmiunion  which  can  neither  be  analyzed  nor  de- 
scribed, hours  when  perhaps  our  only  prayer  is, 
Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  is  listening,  and  per- 
haps the  only  answer  we  hear  is,  Be  still  and  know 
that  I  am  God. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS    CHRIST :    THE  SUB- 
STANCE OF  HIS  TEACHING 

There  have  been  many  attempts  to  formulate  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  Of  these  the  earliest  is 
that  contained  in  the  Epistle  to  Titus :  "  The  grace 
of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared  to 
all  men,  teaching  us  that,  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously, 
and  godly,  in  this  present  world ;  looking  for  that 
blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great 
God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  ^  This  sum- 
mary of  Christ's  teaching  may  certainly  be  taken 
as  an  indication  of  the  opinions  respecting  that 
teaching  entertained  by  the  Apostolic  Church,  and 
it  is  clear  from  this  summary  that  the  Early  Church 
thought  of  Christ  as  a  systematic  teacher,  or,  at 
least,  as  a  teacher  of  truths  which  could  be  sys- 
tematized, and  which,  being  systematized,  proved 
to  be  comprehensive  and  complete,  covering  all  the 
categories  of  human  experience.  For  man  stands  in 
four  relations  in  his  life  involving  ethical  obligation, 
and  only  in  four.  First,  in  a  relation  to  a  material 
universe,  and  to  his  body,  which  is  a  part  of  that 

1  Titus  ii,  11-13. 


276  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

material  universe,  through  which  he  comes  in  con- 
tact with  the  world  outside.  Second,  in  a  relation 
to  his  fellow  men,  that  is,  to  human  society.  Third, 
in  a  relation  to  God.  Fourth,  in  a  relation  to  the 
future.  These  four  include  all  the  possible  catego- 
ries of  experience :  relation  to  the  material  world, 
relation  to  his  fellow  men,  relation  to  God,  and 
relation  to  the  future.  We  stand,  it  is  true,  in  a 
certain  relation  to  the  past ;  but  we  cannot  change 
it,  and  therefore  it  is  not  a  relation  which  affects 
our  duty.  What  the  Epistle  to  Titus  declares  is 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  taught  how  we  should  live  in 
these  four  relations.  He  has  taught  us  what  are 
our  ethical  relations  to  the  physical  world,  to  our 
fellow  men,  to  God,  and  to  the  future. 

It  is  also  clear  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  was  regarded  as  vital  and 
practical  rather  than  as  philosophical  and  theologi- 
cal. He  taught  the  practical  art  of  living  rather 
than  any  abstract  theory  of  life.  If  one  had  asked 
the  primitive  Church,  in  the  second  century,  what 
Jesus  came  to  teach,  he  would  probably  have  been 
answered  in  the  words  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  He 
would  have  been  told  that  the  essence  of  Christian- 
ity lies  in  certain  historic  facts.  If  one  had  asked  a 
couple  of  centuries  later  what  was  the  epitome  of 
Christ's  teaching,  the  answer  would  have  been  in 
the  words  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
"  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of  very 
God,  begotten,  not  made,  being  of  one  substance 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       277 

with  the  Father,"  in  other  words,  that  the  essence 
of  Christianity  consists  in  certain  beliefs  respecting 
the  relationship  which  Jesus  Christ  bears  to  the 
Eternal  and  the  Infinite.  If  one  had  asked  the 
Christians  of  the  sixteenth  century,  whether  Pro- 
testant or  Roman 'Catholic,  they  would  have  pre- 
sented in  reply  certain  theories  of  the  universe  as 
constituting  the  essence  of  Christianity.  We  find 
them  to-day  embodied  in  the  Creed  of  Pius  IV, 
in  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  or  in  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles.  But  in  this  earliest  summary 
of  Christ's  instruction  he  is  represented  as  teach- 
ing, not  what  we  should  think,  but  how  we  should 
live.  There  is  nothing  in  this  epitome  concerning 
theological  or  other  opinions.  It  concerns  itself 
wholly  with  life.  Jesus  Christ  has  come  to  teach 
us  that  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  godly, 
and  hopefully  in  this  present  world. 

I.  What  does  Jesus  Christ  mean  by  soberly  ? 

In  the  first  century  the  condition  of  the  world 
was  that  of  gross  animalism.  Wealth  was  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  a  very  few.  At  least  half  the 
world  were  slaves,  and  of  the  other  haK  the  great 
majority  lived  in  abject  poverty.  At  the  same  time 
a  few  lived  in  the  possession  of  wealth  so  great  that 
they  knew  not  what  to  do  with  it.  The  result  was  a 
state  of  dissipation  and  degradation  ahnost  incred- 
ible in  our  times.  The  world  was  ransacked  for 
materials  to  add  to  the  gratification  of  the  body. 
From  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  four  hundred 


278  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

thousand  doUars  were  sometimes  spent  on  a  single 
banquet.  It  is  said  of  one  man  that  he  spent  four 
millions  of  doUars  in  luxurious  eating  and  drinking, 
and  then  committed  suicide  because  he  had  only 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  between  himself  and 
starvation.  The  feasts  lasted  for  days,  often  for  a 
week.  Sometimes  a  governor  was  appointed,  who 
required  men  to  drink  their  due  quota  of  wine. 
The  grossness  of  indulgence  in  animal  passion  was 
such  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe  it  in  explicit 
terms  in  such  a  volume  as  this. 

Such  a  state  of  affairs  called  for  reform,  and 
there  were  those  who  proposed  reform.  There  grew 
up  sects  which  declared  that  all  aniaial  pleasure 
was  shameful,  degrading,  sinful.  In  Kome  were 
the  Stoics,  who  claimed  that  pleasure  was  always 
degrading.  In  Palestine  were  the  Pharisees  and  the 
Essenes,  who,  in  different  forms,  made  the  same 
claim.  The  Pharisees  were  the  Puritans  of  the  first 
century.  They  were  the  separatists.  They  lived  in 
the  world,  mixed  with  the  world,  made  money,  went 
to  feasts,  had  fine  houses,  wore  fine  clothes ;  but 
they  held  that  religion  was  apart  from  this  life. 
When  they  feasted,  they  were  not  religious ;  to  be 
religious  they  fasted.  They  were  not  religious  when 
they  lived  in  fine  clothes ;  to  be  religious  they  took 
off  their  fine  clothes  and  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes. 
Religion  consisted  in  separating  themselves  from 
the  enjoyments  in  which  for  most  of  the  time  they 
indulged.    The  Essenes  were  more  consistent,  if 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        279 

less  practical.  They  separated  themselves  from  the 
world ;  lived  away  from  the  towns  where  the  temp- 
tations were  great ;  gathered  in  little  villages  or  in 
settlements  in  the  desert ;  forbade,  it  is  said,  though 
this  is  doubtful,  all  use  of  meat  and  of  wine ;  cer- 
tainly forbade  aU  ^marriage.  They  cut  themselves 
off  from  everything  in  life  from  which  it  was  pos- 
sible to  cut  themselves  off,  and  still  maintain  an 
existence. 

This,  broadly  speaking,  was  the  condition  of  the 
world  when  Jesus  came  into  it,  —  on  the  one  hand, 
men  giving  themselves  up  to  imbridled  lust  and 
appetite,  without  restraint  of  any  kind ;  on  the 
other  hand,  men  saying,  All  indulgence  in  pleasure 
is  irreligious,  and  to  be  religious  we  will  take  cer- 
tain times  for  denial  of  the  body,  or,  more  consist- 
ently, saying,  We  will  deny  the  body  entirely  as 
far  as  we  can  do  so  and  still  keep  soul  and  body 
together. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  find  in  our  own  time 
parallels  to  both  these  classes.  On  the  one  hand, 
there  are  men  and  women  —  a  few,  though  not  so 
many  now  as  there  were  in  the  Middle  Ages  — 
who  hold  that  the  highest  religion  requires  that  we 
should  separate  ourselves  from  the  world  altogether  ; 
there  are  many  more  who  hold  that  religion  consists 
in  cutting  off  certain  things  which  they  characterize 
as  worldly.  It  is  irreligious  to  play  cards,  but  not 
to  play  dominoes ;  to  play  billiards,  but  not  to  play 
croquet ;  to  go  to  the  theatre,  but  not  to  witness 


280  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

tableaux.  A  line  is  drawn  ;  all  on  one  side  of  the 
line  is  wrong,  all  on  the  other  side  of  ^the  line  is 
right.  There  is  more  than  one  man  who  eats  poor 
pastry  and  drinks  strong  coffee  until  his  flesh  is 
as  flabby  as  the  one  and  his  skin  as  yeUow  as  the 
other,  and  yet  thinks  that  he  is  a  temperance  man 
because  he  does  not  drink  beer.  Such  men  conceive 
that  religion  requires  us  to  put  certain  things  in 
packages  and  write  "  prohibited "  on  them,  and 
certain  other  things  in  packages  and  write  "per- 
mitted "  on  them. 

Jesus  Christ  did  not  accept  any  such  notion. 
He  came  into  the  world,  and  in  the  world  lived  as 
a  man  among  men.  He  was  no  ascetic.  His  first 
miracle  was  making  wine  at  a  wedding,  simply  to 
add  to  the  festivities  of  that  joyous  occasion.  He 
continued  throughout  his  life  in  the  same  spirit. 
The  sect  of  Essenes,  who  separated  themselves  from 
the  world,  he  did  not  join.  John  the  Baptist,  as  a 
protest  against  the  sensuality  of  his  time,  went  into 
the  wilderness  and  lived  there  on  locusts  and  wild 
honey.  Jesus  pursued  the  opposite  course.  John, 
he  said,  came  neither  eating  nor  drinking ;  the  Son 
of  man  came  eating  and  drinking.  It  is  not  re- 
corded that  in  the  history  of  his  life  he  ever  de- 
clined an  invitation  to  a  feast.  Sometimes  it  was 
given  to  him  by  the  rich,  sometimes  by  the  poor, 
sometimes  by  a  Pharisee,  sometimes  by  a  publican  ; 
but  whoever  gave  it,  he  went.  He  accepted  the 
common  pleasures  of  life,  and  was  not  prevented 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        281 

from  so  doing  by  the  fear  that  his  example  would 
be  misinterpreted.  It  was  misinterpreted  :  because 
he  came  eating  and  drinking,  men  said  of  him  that 
he  was  a  wine-bibber  and  a  glutton  ;  they  lied,  but 
stiU  he  went  on  eating  and  drinking  as  before.^ 

And  what  he  ^did  he  advised  others  to  do. 
Again  and  again  he  portrayed  a  great  feast  to  il- 
lustrate the  kingdom  of  God.  He  never  spoke  of 
dancing  with  displeasure,  and  more  than  once  with 
apparent  commendation.  He  spoke  of  the  sports 
and  games  of  the  children  in  the  market-place  with 
apparent  approbation.  He  told  the  story  of  a  boy 
who  had  wandered  off  into  a  far  country,  and  come 
back  after  his  experience  with  the  harlots,  footsore, 
ragged,  unkempt,  poverty-stricken,  and  when  his 
father  received  him  it  was  to  music  and  dancing 
and  a  feast.  Paul,  in  one  of  his  letters,  tells  us  in 
a  phrase  which  has  been  often  misquoted  and  mis- 
interpreted what  he  thinks  the  spirit  and  teaching 
of  Christ  embody  on  this  subject.  "Wherefore," 
Paul  says,  "  if  ye  be  dead  with  Christ  from  the 
rudiments  of  the  world,  why,  as  though  living  in 
the  world,  are  ye  subject  to  ordinances,  [such  as] 
Touch  not ;  taste  not ;  handle  not ;  which  all  are  to 
perish  with  the  using  ;  after  the  commandments  and 
doctrines  of  men  ?  "  "  Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle 
not "  !  How  often  that  has  been  quoted  as  though 
that  were  the  law  laid  down  by  Christianity  !   Paul 

1  John  ii,  1-11 ;  Matt,  xi,  18,  19  ;  Luke  vii,  36,  »,  37,  xiv,  1, 
xix,  2-5  ;  Matt,  ix,  10,  xxvi,  6, 7. 


282  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

quotes  it  from  pagan  literature,  and  says  to  Chris- 
tians: You  are  free  from  that  law  if  you  are  a 
follower  of  Christ.  You  are  to  touch,  you  are  to 
taste,  you  are  to  handle  ;  the  world  is  yours.  That 
is  the  first  teaching  of  Christ.^ 

But  while  Christ  was  not  prevented  from  taking 
the  innocent  pleasures  of  the  world  even  by  the 
misrepresentation  and  abuse  which  resulted  from 
it,  his  happiness  did  not  depend  on  what  we  call 
pleasure,  —  on  fine  clothes,  fine  houses,  fine  food,  or 
anything  that  ministers  merely  to  the  body.  He 
took  these  things  if  they  came ;  he  left  them  alone 
if  they  did  not  come ;  but  he  did  not  care.  A  man 
said  to  him  once,  I  will  follow  thee  whithersoever 
thou  goest ;  he  said.  Will  you  ?  Foxes  have  holes, 
birds  of  the  air  have  nests ;  I  have  not  where  to 
lay  my  head.  He  went  to  aU  sorts  of  feasts  pro- 
vided for  him,  but  the  food  that  he  provided  for 
himself  was  apparently  of  the  simplest  kind.  One 
incident  tells  us  what  it  was.  A  great  crowd  lis- 
tened aU  day  long;  they  were  hungry;  Christ  wished 
to  feed  them.  He  turns  to  his  disciples :  What  pro- 
vision have  we  ?  Five  crackers  and  two  little  fishes 
—  like  our  sardines  —  the  humblest  food  of  the 
peasants.  This  was  his  food.  He  lived  a  poor  man, 
and  poverty  did  not  trouble  him.  He  depended  on 
the  charity  of  men  for  his  livelihood  while  he  taught 
them,  and  he  told  his  disciples  to  do  the  same. 
When  he  sent  them  forth,  he  said.  Take  no  money 
1  Matt,  xi,  16, 17;  Luke  xv,  26 ;  CoL  ii,  20-23. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       283 

in  your  purse ;  depend  on  what  men  will  give  to  you. 
Once  he  came  out  from  Jerusalem  and  stopped  at 
the  house  of  a  friend.  There  were  two  sisters.  One 
of  them  was  interested  in  his  teaching,  and  sat  at 
his  feet,  listening  to  him ;  the  other  bustled  about 
the  house  to  get  a  great  supper  for  him.  When  the 
busy  sister  called  on  him  to  send  her  sister  to  help 
her  he  refused.  He  preferred  the  listening  pupil  to 
the  too  busy  housekeeper.  He  would  rather  teach 
than  eat.  He  and  his  disciples  had  no  servant. 
Once  when  they  came  in  from  a  long  walk,  tired, 
footsore,  with  soiled  feet,  —  they  wore  no  shoes  and 
stockings  in  those  days,  and  therefore  men  washed 
their  feet  as  we  wash  oui-  hands  before  meals,  —  and 
there  was  no  one  to  do  this  for  them,  he  poured  the 
water  into  the  basin  and  washed  their  feet  himseK.^ 
He  was  no  Stoic,  but  he  was  no  epicure;  he  was  no 
Pharisee,  but  he  was  no  Sadducee;  he  was  no  Puri- 
tan, but  he  was  no  Cavalier.  He  did  not  depend  for 
his  happiness  on  the  things  the  world  gives,  and  he 
told  his  disciples  not  to  depend  on  them.  Happiness, 
he  said  to  them,  is  a  disposition,  not  a  condition. 
Men  are  happy  according  to  what  they  are,  not  ac- 
cording to  what  they  have.  Blessedness  depends 
on  character,  not  on  possession ;  on  what  you  are, 
not  on  what  you  have ;  on  how  you  live,  not  on 
where  you  live.  The  true  man  is  independent  of 
his  possessions.    This  was  his  teaching,  and  it  was 

1  Matt,  viii,  20,  xiv,  16,  17;  Luke  x,  4-11,  38-40;  John  xiii, 
1-5. 


284  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

taught  by  him  in  his  life  as  well  as  by  his  words. 
He  lived  it  as  well  as  taught  it.  Sobriety  with  him 
did  not  mean  cutting  off  certain  things  and  allowing 
himself  certain  other  things;  it  meant  counting  all 
things  as  his  if  he  chose  to  use  them,  and  yet  not 
depending  for  his  pleasure  on  them. 

For  sobriety  involved,  in  the  second  place,  the 
fundamental  principle  that  things  are  for  men,  not 
men  for  things.  This  principle  had  been  announced 
by  an  unknown  Hebrew  prophet  in  that  wonderful 
poem  which  describes  the  creation  of  the  world. 
"  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him;  male  and  female 
created  he  them.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God 
said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth,  and  subdue  it :  and  have  domin- 
ion over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon 
the  earth."  ^  All  things  are  made  for  man,  —  all 
material  things,  aU  animal  things,  —  made  that  they 
may  be  the  servitors  of  man,  that  they  may  make 
him  happier  and  wiser  and  better.  All  animals  are 
his  servants,  and  the  animal  nature  that  is  a  part  of 
him  is  no  less  his  servant.  The  animal  in  the  man 
is  made  to  serve  that  which  is  higher  than  the  ani- 
mal in  the  man,  as  aU  external  things  are  made  to 
serve  him.  This  was  a  fimdamental  principle  both 
in  the  teaching  and  in  the  living  of  Jesus.  All 
material  things  outside  and  all  material  things 
1  Gen.  i,  27,  28. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       285 

within  the  man  himself  are  made  for  the  inteUect- 
ual,  the  moral,  the  spiritual,  the  immaterial.  The 
lower  must  serve  the  higher. 

When  he  saw  a  man  who  did  not  imderstand 
this  principle,  and  who  thought  there  was  joy  in 
the  simple  possession  of  things,  he  called  him  —  for 
sometimes  he  spoke  in  very  plain  language  —  a  fool. 
He  told  the  story  of  a  man  who,  having  filled  his 
bams  to  bursting,  said.  What  shall  I  do?  I  have 
no  more  barns  to  dispose  of  my  goods.  I  wiU  build 
greater  bams,  and  put  my  harvests  in  the  greater 
barns,  and  I  will  say  to  myself,  Eat,  drink,  and  be 
merry.  And  then  Jesus  said,  God  called  to  him.  Thou 
fool,  this  night  thy  life  shaU  be  required  of  thee.  A 
man  who  cannot  think  of  anything  better  to  do  with 
things  than  to  fill  his  house  with  them,  and  then 
build  another  house  and  fiU  that  with  them,  and 
then  a  third  house  and  fiU  that  with  them,  Jesus 
calls  a  fool.  And  there  are  a  great  many  such  fools 
in  America.  He  put  this  truth  again  explicitly 
in  a  question  which  it  will  be  well  for  Americans 
to  ponder :  "  What  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shaU 
gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  life  ?  "  ^  The 
world  is  made  for  life,  and  if  a  man  exchanges  his 
life  for  the  world,  what  does  he  gain  ?  Yet  there 
is  many  a  man  who  does  exactly  this.  He  can  pur- 
chase pictures  in  France  or  Germany  or  England, 
and  pay  what  prices  he  will,  but  he  has  no  eyes  for 

^  Luke  xii,  16-21 ;  Matt,  zyi,  26.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the 
Greek  word  "  soul." 


286  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

art.  He  can  buy  libraries,  and  with  them  make 
beautiful  wall-paper  for  his  rooms,  but  the  only- 
books  he  cares  for  are  the  ledger  and  the  day-book. 
He  has  money  which  will  enable  him  to  put  all  the 
luxuries  of  aU  the  markets  on  his  table,  and  a  diges- 
tion which  forbids  him  to  eat  any  of  them.  He  has 
lost  his  life  in  gaining  things.  In  our  American 
world  are  many  such  men. 

In  contrast  with  such  living,  common  now,  almost 
universal  then,  Jesus  said.  Things  are  for  men,  not 
men  for  things.  His  first  affirmation  is.  Your  hap- 
piness does  not  depend  upon  what  you  have,  but 
upon  what  you  are ;  his  second,  Things  are  for  you, 
not  you  for  things.  To  live  soberly  according  to 
the  example  and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to  live 
under  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of  these  two 
simple  and  fundamental  principles.  It  is  not  to  put 
certain  things  on  one  side  and  say,  I  will  not  take 
those,  and  certain  things  on  the  other  side  and  say, 
I  will  take  those,  —  it  is  to  say,  I  will  take  every- 
thing that  will  help  me  to  be  a  better  man,  and 
nothing  that  will  not  help  me  to  be  a  better  man. 

There  are  three  conceptions  possible  respecting 
our  relation  to  the  material  world.  First :  that  we 
should  give  ourselves  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  it :  let 
us  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we  die. 
Rome  did  that,  and  Eome  died ;  and  the  land  that 
had  given  a  Cicero,  a  Caesar,  a  Tacitus,  a  Sallust, 
a  Virgil,  lay  for  centuries  dead,  kiUed  by  its  own 
self-indulgence.    The  second  is,  to  shut  one's  self  off 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        287 

from  the  world,  and  shut  off  all  those  things  in  the 
world  that  bring  what  we  caU  pleasure.  The  Puri- 
tans tried  this  plan.  They  broke  the  glass  windows 
in  the  cathedrals,  destroyed  the  statues,  tore  down 
the  pictures  from  the  waUs,  prohibited  the  novel, 
shut  the  door  of  the  theatre.  But  aU  that  they  abol- 
ished came  back  again  :  the  stained-glass  windows 
are  in  Puritan  churches ;  the  statues  are  restored 
to  the  niches ;  the  pictures  are  on  the  walls ;  the 
theatre  doors  are  wide  open ;  the  novel  is  here  to 
stay.  The  third  method  is  the  method  of  consecra- 
tion. It  is  the  method  of  one  who  says.  Whatever 
I  can  use  to  make  myseK,  my  family,  my  world 
wiser,  better,  happier,  I  will  enjoy ;  and  what  I 
cannot  so  use  I  will  prohibit  to  myself.  This  was 
the  method  which  Christ  urged  alike  by  his  precept 
and  example.  Soberly,  as  interpreted  by  Christ, 
means  the  free  use  of  aU  things  in  the  service  and 
for  the  upbuilding  of  the  spirit.  It  is  interpreted 
by  Paul  in  his  declaration  to  the  Corinthians,  "  All 
things  are  yours;  whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or 
Cephas,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things 
present,  or  things  to  come ;  aU  are  yours ;  and  ye 
are  Christ's  ;  and  Christ  is  God's."  ^  All  teachers, 
all  material  things,  aU  activities,  present  and  fu- 
ture, all  belong  to  us,  to  use  as  Christ  used  them, 
in  loyalty  to  God  and  in  the  service  of  our  fellow 
men. 

II.  What  does  Jesus  Christ  mean  by  righteously  ? 
1  1  Cor.  iii,  21-23. 


288  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

What  did  he  teach  concerning  the  right  relation  of 
man  to  his  fellow  men  ? 

In  interpreting  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  we 
ought  not  to  forget,  as  we  are  too  apt  to  do,  that  he 
was  a  Jew  and  primarily  a  teacher  to  Jews,  and  that 
he  assumed  as  the  basis  of  his  teaching  the  funda- 
mental faiths  held  and  inculcated  by  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  And  fundamental  to  their  teaching  was 
the  doctrine  that  God  is  a  righteous  God ;  that  he 
demands  righteousness  of  his  children,  and  demands 
nothing  else ;  that  the  one  thing  that  arouses  his 
anger  is  man's  inhumanity  to  man;  that  the  one 
way  to  please  him  is  for  man  to  serve  his  f eUow  man. 
It  is  true  that  there  had  grown  up  in  Judaism  an 
elaborate  sacrificial  system,  a  great  temple,  and  a 
great  priesthood ;  but  this  sacrificial  system,  with 
its  priesthood  and  its  temple,  was  not  essential  to  the 
Hebrew  religion.  That  it  was  not  is  evident  from 
two  facts :  first,  that,  as  modern  scholars  have  abun- 
dantly shown,  this  system  did  not  exist  in  anything 
like  the  form  in  which  we  now  find  it  in  the  Old 
Testament  until  the  fifth  or  sixth  century  before 
Christ ;  second,  that  with  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, seventy  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  the 
temple,  the  sacrificial  system,  and  the  priesthood 
disappeared.  No  Jew  now  offers  sacrifices,  no  Jew 
now  recognizes  a  priesthood,  and  yet  the  religion 
of  the  Hebrew  people  remains  to-day  fundamentally 
what  it  was  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ. 
Jesus  Christ  has  himseK  given  a  summary  of  the 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       289 

Hebrew  religion,  as  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  writings 
of  its  great  law-giver  and  the  subsequent  prophets : 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind. 
This  is  the  first  and  great  commandment.  And  the 
second  is  like  untait.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself."  ^  AU  the  law  and  all  the  prophets  are 
the  development  and  application  of  these  two  prin- 
ciples, or  this  twofold  spirit. 

In  thus  summarizing  the  Hebrew  law  and  prophets 
Jesus  summarized  his  own  reply  to  the  question, 
What  is  righteousness  ?  In  his  first  sermon  at  Naz- 
areth, in  defining  his  mission  in  the  terms  of  an 
ancient  Hebrew  prophet,  he  significantly  ignored 
all  ecclesiastical  requirements,  and  summed  up  the 
object  of  his  mission  in  terms  of  helpfulness  to 
suffering  humanity.  His  mission,  he  said,  was 
to  bring  glad  tidings  to  the  poor,  healing  to  the 
broken-hearted,  deliverance  to  the  captives,  sight 
to  the  blind,  liberty  to  the  bruised.  When  John 
the  Baptist  sent  two  of  his  disciples  to  ask  if  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah,  this  work  of  help  and  healing 
was  the  only  evidence  of  his  Messiahship  which 
he  offered  :  "  Tell  John,"  he  said,  "  what  things  ye 
have  seen  and  heard ;  how  that  the  blind  see,  the 
lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear, 
the  dead  are  raised,  to  the  poor  the  glad  tidings  are 
preached."  ^ 

Christ's  whole  ministry  is  in  harmony  with  this 
1  Matt,  xxii,  35-40.  ^  Luke  ir,  16-19,  vii,  19-23. 


290  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

teaching.  In  his  parables  he  portrayed,  as  his  ideals 
of  the  religion  which  he  taught,  not  characters  fa- 
mous for  devoutness  or  theological  lore  or  mystical 
faith,  —  he  portrayed  men  who,  living  common  lives, 
lived  them  on  the  plane  of  a  high  and  noble  morality. 
The  farmer  who  was  diligently  sowing  seed;  the 
father  who  received  back  into  his  arms  the  wayward 
son ;  the  man  who,  having  found  the  pearl  of  great 
price,  did  not  put  it  in  his  pocket,  but  looked  for 
the  owner  and  sold  all  that  he  had  in  order  that 
he  might  buy  it  honestly ;  the  steward  who  admin- 
istered a  great  estate  fairly  for  his  lord,  and  was 
ready  to  return  a  good  account  of  it  when  the  time 
of  administration  had  passed,  —  such  were  the  men 
Christ  held  up  before  his  disciples  as  his  conception 
of  religious  men.  To  illustrate  this  principle  he 
told  a  story  which  has  often  been  misunderstood 
because  the  emphasis  of  it  has  been  disregarded. 
He  assumed  the  common  belief  of  his  time  in  a 
future  hell  and  a  future  heaven.  According  to  that 
belief,  to  hell  the  heathen  and  the  heretics  and  the 
publicans  and  sinners  were  sent.  Christ  told  the 
story  of  two  men,  one  of  whom  fared  sumptuously 
every  day  and  was  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen, 
and,  so  far  as  the  account  went,  did  no  harm  to  any 
one  —  simply  did  no  good,  leaving  the  poor  man  to 
suffer  at  his  door,  while  the  dogs  licked  his  sores. 
And  Christ  said  that  this  is  the  kind  of  man  who 
is  to  go  to  hell,  the  man  who  leaves  suffering  and 
trouble  and  sorrow  unrelieved  in  the  world  when  he 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        291 

has  power  to  relieve  it.  Once,  and  only  once,  be 
drew  a  picture  of  the  judgment.  God,  he  said,  wdll 
set  men  on  his  right  hand  and  on  his  left,  as  the 
sheep  and  the  goats  might  be  divided  by  a  shepherd, 
and  he  will  say  to  those  on  the  one  hand,  "  Come, 
ye  blessed  of  my' Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world," 
and  to  those  on  the  other,  "  Depart  from  me,  ye 
cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels."  And  when  they  ask  why,  he  wiU 
reply.  You  shall  go  into  everlasting  punishment 
because  you  did  not  feed  the  hungry,  you  did  not 
clothe  the  naked,  you  did  not  visit  the  sick  and  the 
imprisoned  ;  and.  You  shall  go  into  everlasting  life 
because  you  did  feed  the  hungry  and  clothe  the 
naked,  and  visit  the  sick  and  the  imprisoned.^ 

This,  Christ's  teaching,  was  emphasized  by  his  ex- 
ample. He  was  not  a  priest.  He  went  to  the  Temple 
and  the  Temple  feasts,  but  apparently  because  the 
people  crowded  there  and  thus  afforded  him  an  oppor- 
tunity for  teaching.  He  never,  so  far  as  we  have  any 
account,  sacrificed  for  himseK.  Again  and  again  he 
told  men  their  sins  were  forgiven  them,  and  never 
told  them  to  offer  a  sacrifice  for  their  sins.  Once, 
indeed,  he  sent  a  leper  to  the  Temple,  but  it  was 
because  the  priest  was  the  health  officer  of  that 
time,  and  the  leper  must  have  a  clean  biU  of  health 
from  the  priest  before  he  could  go  back  into  society. 

1  Matt,  xiii,  3-9,  45,  46,  xxv,  14-46 ;  Luke  x,  30-37,  xv,  11- 
32,  xvi,  19-31. 


292  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  was  not  spent  in  ceremo- 
nial observance  ;  it  was  spent  in  going  about  doing 
good.  He  gave  himseH  to  his  fellow  men.  He 
fed  the  hungry,  comforted  the  sorrowing,  helped 
the  discouraged,  instructed  the  ignorant.  Never, 
within  the  limits  of  the  human  strength  which  was 
given  to  him,  did  he  refuse  aid  to  those  who  came 
to  him  for  aid.  No  barrier  could  separate  him  from 
his  fellow  men.  It  was  deemed  in  that  time  irre- 
ligious to  teach  pagans.  He  taught  pagans  as  well 
as  Jews.  It  was  considered  indecorous  to  preach 
religion  to  women ;  he  never  hesitated  to  preach  to 
women.  No  moral  degradation  was  sufficient  to 
separate  man  or  woman  from  his  sympathy.  The 
woman  that  was  a  sinner,  the  woman  that  to-day 
scarce  any  man  is  wiUing  to  recognize  as  a  hopeful 
object  of  redemption,  to  her  he  brought  the  words 
of  hope ;  to  her  he  said,  "Thy  sins  are  forgiven: 
go  in  peace."  ^ 

In  these  teachings  of  Christ  concerning  man's  re- 
lation to  his  fellow  men,  there  are  five  great  laws 
of  life  which  he  inculcated.  Let  us  look  at  them 
separately.2 

First  was  the  principle  of  human  brotherhood : 
"  All  ye  are  brethren,"  and  "  One  is  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  That  motto  which  has  come 
into  our  American  industrial  life  might  well  be 

1  Matt,  ix,  9-13 ;  Luke  vii,  86-50 ;  Jolin  viii,  2-11. 
^  These  laws  of  the  Christian  life  I  have  treated  more  fully  in 
Christianity  and  Social  Problems. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       293 

founded  on  his  teaching,  for  it  expresses  his  spirit, 
"An  injury  to  one  is  an  injury  to  all."  But  he 
taught  it  with  a  far  wider  application  than  is  com- 
mon in  our  time.  The  injury  to  one  laborer  is  an 
injury  to  other  laborers ;  but  it  is  also  an  injury  to 
the  capitalist.  The  injury  to  one  capitalist  is  an  in- 
jury to  other  capitalists ;  it  is  also  an  injury  to  the 
laborer.  Whatever  builds  up  the  interest  of  the  one 
class  builds  up  the  interest  of  the  other ;  whatever 
injures  the  interest  of  the  one  injures  the  interest 
of  the  other.  We  are  one  great  corporate  body,  one 
universal  brotherhood.  And  the  basis  for  this  doc- 
trine is  a  religious  basis.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
why  I  am  brother  to  the  man  whom  I  meet  in 
daily  social  intercourse,  to  the  man  who  worships 
in  the  same  church  with  me,  to  the  American  born 
on  the  same  soil  and  having  the  same  blood  in  his 
veins ;  but  why  am  I  brother  to  the  man  in  a 
whoUy  different  social  circle,  to  the  Jew,  the  pagan, 
the  unbeliever,  to  the  stranger  and  foreigner,  to 
those  men  who  are  outside  my  life  and  never  come 
in  touch  with  me  ?  Why  ?  Because  we  are  children 
of  one  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  The  fatherhood 
of  God  —  without  that  there  is  no  brotherhood  of 
man ;  and  without  the  brotherhood  of  man  there  is 
no  fatherhood  of  God.  The  two  go  together ;  the 
one  cannot  be  separated  from  the  other. 

The  second  great  law  that  Jesus  enunciated  was 
the  Golden  Rule  of  honesty ;  and  he  enunciated  it 
in  these  words :  "  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would 


294  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  i 
That  is  not,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  a  law  of  love  ; 
it  is  a  law  of  justice.  Who  am  I  that  I  should 
demand  of  my  neighbor  what  I  would  not  give 
to  him  if  we  were  to  change  places  ?  Equity  de- 
mands that  anything  which  I  ask  of  him  I  should 
be  ready  to  give  to  him,  and  anything  which  I 
should  be  willing  to  ask  of  him  if  we  changed 
places,  he  has  a  right  to  ask  of  me.  This  is  not 
charity,  this  is  justice.  It  is  expressed  in  the  famil- 
iar motto.  Put  yourseK  in  his  place.  It  is  a  very- 
simple  principle,  and  it  is  very  easy  of  application. 
What  are  the  duties  of  the  preacher  and  pastor  ? 
What  he  would  wish  of  his  pastor  if  he  were  a  lay- 
man in  the  pew.  What  are  the  duties  of  the  doc- 
tor ?  What  he  would  desire  if  he  were  the  patient 
and  the  doctor  came  to  see  him.  What  does  the 
lawyer  owe  to  the  client  ?  What  he  would  desire 
of  his  lawyer  if  he  were  the  client.  What  are  the 
duties  of  the  workingman  ?  What,  if  he  were  the 
employer,  he  would  ask  of  his  workingman.  What 
are  the  duties  of  the  capitalist  ?  What  he  would 
expect  the  capitalist  to  do  for  him  if  he  were  a 
laboring  man.  What  does  the  mistress  owe  the 
cook  in  her  kitchen  ?  They  are  sisters,  one  in  the 
kitchen,  one  in  the  parlor:  let  each  put  herself  in 
the  other's  place  and  then  ask  and  answer  the 
question.  This  is  Christ's  law  of  honesty :  What- 
ever you  would  demand  of  another,  that  you  owe  to 
1  Matt,  vii,  12. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        295 

him.  It  is  a  ploughshare  that  runs  deep,  and  were 
it  to  run  through  American  society  it  would  be  found 
in  many  respects  revolutionary ;  but  no  man  can 
question  its  inherent  and  absolute  justice. 

The  third  law  of  righteousness  which  Christ 
propounded  is  that  property  is  a  trust.  There  is 
a  familiar  motto,  What  is  mine  is  my  own.  That 
Jesus  Christ  emphatically  denied.  All  wealth  is 
really  common  wealth.  Every  man  is  contributing 
to  his  neighbor,  whether  he  wiU  or  whether  he  wiU 
not.  How  many  men  contributed  to  make  the  break- 
fast we  ate  this  morning!  Our  coffee  came  from 
Mexico,  our  sugar  from  Louisiana,  our  milk  from 
Orange  County,  our  beefsteak  from  Chicago,  and 
our  wheat  bread  from  Minneapolis.  How  many 
contributed  to  make  the  clothes  we  wear!  How 
many  men  are  dead  who  contributed  to  make  this 
contribution  possible !  How  many  lives  have  been 
sunk  in  making  the  great  flour  mill  in  Minneapolis ! 
How  many  lives  in  making  the  loom  that  wove  our 
garments!  Can  we  pay  the  dead?  Can  we  pay 
even  the  living?  Every  man  is  debtor  to  every 
other  man.  As  well  might  one  spring  that  has  con- 
tributed to  the  Croton  reservoir  claim  its  own  sep- 
arate drops  of  water,  and  say.  These  are  mine,  as 
for  any  man  to  say,  What  has  come  into  my  pos- 
session even  by  my  industry  I  have  made  myself. 
No  man  ever  made  his  wealth ;  be  it  little  or  much, 
the  whole  world  has  contributed  to  make  it. 

Communism  affirms  that  inasmuch  as  all  prop- 


296  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

erty  is  made  in  common,  all  property  should  be 
administered  in  common.  Christ  drew  no  such  de- 
duction ;  neither  did  he  condemn  it.  He  said  no- 
thing against  men's  administering  their  property  in 
common,  he  said  nothing  in  favor  of  it ;  he  simply 
said  that  all  property  is  a  trust,  and  whatever  man 
has,  be  it  little  or  be  it  much,  he  holds  it  in  trust 
for  his  fellow  men.^  It  is  said  of  a  great  railroad 
magnate  that  he  is  worth  a  hundred  million  dollars 
or  more.  What  does  that  mean  ?  It  simply  means 
that  he  is  the  administrator  of  an  enormous  trust. 
His  wealth  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  expended  on  him- 
self. He  cannot  wear  more  clothes  at  a  time  than 
his  poor  neighbor,  nor  eat  more  food  without  injur- 
ing his  digestion,  nor  live  at  any  one  time  in  more 
houses.  He  has  some  advantages.  If  he  is  sick,  he 
can  call  in  what  medical  attendance  he  likes ;  and 
yet  the  poorest  man  may  get  the  best  medical  at- 
tendance in  our  great  hospitals.  He  can  have  what 
books  he  wishes  to  read ;  and  yet  we  are  coming  to 
the  time  when  the  great  public  libraries  will  give 
the  best  books  to  all  men.  He  owns  a  great  rail- 
road, that  is,  he  operates  a  great  highway ;  and  if 
he  is  a  man  of  honesty,  he  operates  it  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people.  Our  food,  our  clothes,  our 
provisions,  the  products  of  our  labor,  come  and  go 
on  this  great  highway  which  he  owns  and  operates. 
It  is  a  trust  in  his  hands  to  administer  for  the 
benefit  of  the  American  people.    That  which  eight- 

1  Matt.  XXV,  14-30;  Luke  xix,  11-27. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        297 

een  centuries  ago  was  the  declaration  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  to-day  the  declaration  of  our  own  courts 
of  justice.  It  is  not  only  Christianity,  it  is  law  to- 
day ;  for  the  courts  declare  that  the  ^eat  highway 
belongs  to  the  people,  and  that  the  man  who  seems 
to  own  it  is  but  a  trustee  and  must  administer  it 
under  their  control  and  according  to  their  direc- 
tion. 

The  fourth  law  of  righteousness  which  Christ 
enimciated  was :  He  that  would  be  greatest  among 
you,  let  him  be  servant  of  all.  The  greatness  of 
a  man  is  measured  by  the  greatness  of  the  service 
he  renders.  Are  we  put  into  this  world  to  see  how 
much  we  can  get  out  of  it,  or  to  see  how  much  we 
can  put  into  it?  The  issue  is  perfectly  simple,  and 
yet  it  is  one  of  those  alphabetic  issues  that,  because 
it  is  so  simple,  men  constantly  forget.  No  man  is 
worthy  to  be  called  a  man  who  is  not  ambitious  so 
to  live  that  the  world  wiU  be  left  richer  and  better 
and  happier  and  wiser  because  he  has  Hved  in  it.  No 
man  is  worthy  to  be  called  a  man  who  is,  as  a  rule, 
idle ;  there  is  work  that  he  can  do.  If  he  walks 
the  streets  with  ragged  shoes  and  ragged  clothes, 
he  is  a  tramp ;  if  he  travels  the  continent  in  Pull- 
man cars  and  does  nothing  for  the  world  he  lives 
in,  he  is  the  worse  tramp  of  the  two,  because  with 
less  excuse  for  his  idleness.  The  unprofitable  ser- 
vant Christ  condemned  because  he  was  unprofit- 
able. A  man  or  a  nation  is  like  a  fruit  tree ;  if 
it  bears  no  fruit  for  the  benefit  of  others,  "  cut  it 


298  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

down ;  why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  "  The  only- 
excuse  for  leaving  it  is  the  hope  that  it  may  justify 
itself  by  becoming  useful.^  This  world  is  not  a 
grab-bag  in  which  we  are  aU  to  put  our  hands, 
some  to  draw  a  prize  and  some  a  blank.  It  is  a 
great  confederacy  in  which  every  man  is  appointed 
to  render  some  service  to  his  fellow  man. 

The  fifth  law  of  righteousness  which  Christ  enun- 
ciated was  the  law  which  his  greatest  follower  epito- 
mized in  the  sentence,  "  Overcome  evil  with  good.'* 
Christianity  is  medicinal.  Christianity  offers  to 
help  men  to  be  better  men  ;  and  Christ  has  told 
us  how  we  are  to  accomplish  that  for  our  fellow 
men.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour,  and  hate  thine  enemy.  But 
I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that 
curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray 
for  them  which  despitefully  use  you,  and  persecute 
you  ;  that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  ^  Not  by  wrath,  not  primarily 
nor  chiefly  by  pain  and  penalty,  but  by  love  and 
service  and  seK-sacrifice,  is  the  world  to  be  made 
right.  The  penologists  are  beginning  themselves  to 
accept  this  principle,  and  to  recognize  that  we  need 
in  our  country,  not  a  system  of  justice  which  will 
give  to  eveiy  offense  its  proper  proportion  of  suffer- 
ing, but  a  system  of  mercy  which  wiU  give  to  every 
man  who  has  been  thrust  into  wrong-doing  by  cir- 
cumstances, or  who  has  walked  into  wrong-doing 
1  Luke  xiii,  6-9.  «  Matt,  v,  43-45. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        299 

with  open  eyes  and  willing  feet,  an  inspiration  to 
return  to  virtue. 

These  are  the  five  great  laws  which  Christ  enun- 
ciated as  laws  of  social  righteousness :  First,  the 
law  of  hunxan  brotherhood,  —  we  are  all  one  organic 
whole ;  second,  tfie  law  of  human  justice,  —  put 
yourself  in  his  place  and  do  to  your  neighbor  as 
you  would  have  him  do  to  you ;  third,  the  law  of 
possession  —  count  all  property  a  trust  to  be  ad- 
ministered for  the  world ;  fourth,  the  law  of  activity 
—  aU  life  is  a  service,  and  he  is  the  greatest  man 
who  renders  the  greatest  service ;  and,  fifthly,  the 
law  of  healing  —  love,  not  wrath. 

As  Jesus  Christ  was  about  to  die,  he  called  the 
twelve  disciples  about  him  and  said  to  them,  "  A 
new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  That  ye  love 
one  another;  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also 
love  one  another."  ^  His  life  gave  to  love  a  new 
significance.  Not  that  self-sacrifice  had  never  been 
known  before,  but  never  on  such  a  scale  and  with 
such  an  inspiration.  He  did  not  merely  love  his 
neighbor  as  he  loved  himself ;  he  loved  men  and 
gave  himself  for  them.  As  he  marched  to  death 
women  followed  after  him  weeping  tears  of  pity, 
and  he  turned  toward  them  with  the  word,  "  Weep 
not  for  me ;  weep  for  yourselves."  The  soldiers 
laid  him  on  the  cross  and  drove  the  nails  through 
his  quivering  hands  and  feet.  He  cried  for  mercy, 
not  for  himself,  but  for  the  men  who  were  nailing 

^  John  xiii,  34. 


300  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

him  to  the  cross.  As  he  hung  there,  the  hot  sun 
beatmg  upon  his  head,  the  pestering  gnats  sting- 
ing his  unprotected  face,  his  head  throbbing  with 
unutterable  anguish,  he  saw  before  him  his  mother 
and  his  beloved  disciple  ;  and  in  that  hour,  when 
he  might  well  have  looked  to  them  for  strength, 
he  thought  alone  of  them  and  their  future  loneli- 
ness, and  when  he  could  no  longer  speak  a  com- 
pleted sentence,  in  broken  accents  he  commended 
them  each  to  the  other's  care :  "  Mother  — -  look  — 
thy  son  !  Son  —  look — thy  mother  I  "  And  so  he 
died.  And  from  that  figure  comes  down  through 
the  ages  this  word,  that  every  man  might  well  honor 
and  revere :  As  I  have  loved  you,  that  so  also  ye 
love  one  another.  This  was  the  consummation  of 
Christ's  law  of  righteousness. 

III.  What  did  Jesus  Christ  mean  by  godly? 
What  did  he  teach,  what  by  his  life  did  he  ex- 
emplify concerning  the  relation  between  God  and 
man  ?  We  are  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed. 
What,  if  anything,  can  we  know  of  this  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy?  What  are  or  may  be  our 
conscious  relations  to  it  ?  To  these  questions  there 
are  four  answers  which  have  been  given  by  serious 
thinkers,  and  more  or  less  widely  accepted  by  large 
bodies  of  men. 

First  is  the  answer  of  agnosticism,  the  answer 
of  those  who  reply,  We  can  know  nothing  about 
this  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  except  that  it 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        301 

exists,  and  that  it  transcends  our  knowledge.  This 
answer  underlies  Confucianism.  It  is  the  basis  of 
the  religious  philosophy  of  the  Chinese,  and  of  what 
is  known  in  this  country  by  the  general  name  of 
the  School  for  Ethical  Culture.  It  may  be  epito- 
mized in  a  sentence  thus :  We  are  and  always  must 
be  ignorant  concerning  the  character  of  God ;  there- 
fore we  would  best  cease  trying  to  know  him  or 
worship  him  or  obey  him,  and  give  ourselves  to  the 
service  of  our  fellow  men  whom  we  can  know.^ 

The  second  answer  is  that  of  ancient  paganism.  It 
is,  that  we  can  know  this  Infinite  and  Eternal  En- 
ergy as  a  great  and  awful  power,  —  moving  towards 
unknown  ends,  to  which  it  is  conducting  all  things 
as  irresistibly  as  the  glacier,  —  and  as  impassible. 
It  is  the  affirmation  that  there  is  a  great  power  in 
the  universe,  but  a  power  without  what  we  are  ac- 
customed to  regard  as  moral  principles,  and  certainly 
without  moral  sympathies.  A  religion  founded  on  this 
conception  wiU  be,  as  it  always  has  been,  a  religion 
of  fear.    Plutarch  has  graphically  portrayed  it : 

Of  all  fears  none  so  dazes  and  confounds  as  that  of 
superstition.  He  fears  not  the  sea  that  never  goes  to  sea ; 
nor  a  battle,  that  follows  not  the  camp ;  nor  robbers, 
that  stirs  not  abroad  ;  nor  malicious  reformers,  that  is  a 
poor  man  ;  nor  emulation,  that  leads  a  private  life  ;  nor 
earthquakes,  that  dwells  in  Gaul ;  nor  thunderbolts,  that 
dwells  in  Ethiopia ;  but  he  that  dreads  divine  powers 

^  For  a  full  exposition  of  this  doctrine  see  John  Cotter  Morison ; 
The  Service  of  Man, 


302  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

dreads  everything,  —  the  land,  the  sea,  the  air,  the  sky, 
the  dark,  the  light,  the  sound,  a  silence,  a  dream.^ 

The  third  conception  of  this  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy  is  that  it  is  a  Person,  who  stands  related  to 
the  human  race  somewhat  as  a  king  stands  related 
to  his  subjects.  He  is  an  awful  Person,  an  inex- 
orable Person,  perhaps  a  terrible  Person,  but  he  is 
a  just  Person.  He  has  made  certain  laws;  they 
are  like  edicts  issued  by  a  king.  We  must  under- 
stand them  and  obey  them  or  suffer  the  conse- 
quences. In  this  conception  of  religion  conscience 
comes  to  reinforce  fear,  and  fear  to  reinforce  con- 
science. This  was  the  earlier  Jewish  conception,  — 
God  a  Lawgiver  ;  the  moral  laws  edicts  or  statutes 
issued  from  God ;  men  his  subjects,  who  must  under- 
stand his  laws  and  obey  them.  But  in  this  concep- 
tion, God  appears  to  stand  apart  from  the  world  that 
he  has  made,  as  the  mechanic  stands  apart  from  the 
engine  which  he  has  made ;  and  apart  from  the  hu- 
man race  which  he  governs,  as  the  king  stands  apart 
from  the  people  whom  he  governs.  He  resides  in 
the  palace  ;  they  reside  in  their  peasant  homes. 

The  fourth  answer  to  our  question  is  that  God 
is  the  friend  of  humanity.  This  was  the  concep- 
tion of  the  later  Hebraism.  It  believed  that  God 
was  a  righteous  Person,  a  King,  but  it  believed  that 
he  was  much  more  than  a  king.  John  Cotter  Mori- 
son  has  thus,  in  a  sentence,  characterized  this  later 
Hebrew  faith ; 

1  Plutarch's  Morals,  i,  169,  170. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        303 

The  Jew  was,  therefore,  on  a  footing  of  familiarity 
and  intimacy,  so  to  speak,  with  his  God,  to  which  the 
metaphysical  Greek,  with  his  wide  discourse  of  reason, 
never  attained.  To  the  Jew,  God  is  the  great  com- 
panion, the  profound  and  loving  yet  terrible  friend  of 
his  inmost  soul,  with  whom  he  holds  communion  in  the 
sanctuary  of  Ms  heart,  to  whom  he  turns,  or  should  turn, 
in  every  hour  of  adversity  or  happiness.^ 

Put  side  by  side  these  four  conceptions  of  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy.  First :  We  can  know 
nothing  about  this  Energy :  let  us  leave  it  alone 
and  go  on  our  way.  Second :  This  Energy  is 
awful,  terrible,  a  power  to  be  dreaded :  let  us  ap- 
pease its  wrath  by  sacrifice  and  win  its  favor  by 
gifts.  Third :  This  Energy  is  that  of  a  just  and 
righteous  Person,  but  an  inexorable  Lawgiver ;  we 
must  conform  to  his  laws  or  suffer  the  penalty. 
Fourth :  He  is  a  sympathetic  Person,  friendly, 
companionable,  helpful ;  if  we  lay  hold  upon  him 
rightly,  he  will  lay  hold  upon  us  and  we  can  count 
upon  his  assistance.  These  are  the  four  great  con- 
ceptions of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy.  What 
was  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  ? 

He  was  not  an  agnostic.  He  claimed  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  God.  He  said  of  himself,  "  As 
the  Father  knoweth  me,  even  so  know  I  the  Fa- 
ther." He  did  not  look  back  across  the  centuries  to 
find  what  Moses  or  David  or  Isaiah  told  him.  He 
knew  the  Father  ;  had  personal  acquaintance  with 

1  John  Cotter  Morison :  The  Service  ofMan^  p.  181. 


304  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

him  ;  the  relationship  between  him  and  the  Father 
was  that  of  intimate,  confidential  friendship.  He 
conversed  with  the  Father.  He  was  accustomed  to 
go  into  the  mountain-top  and  spend  long  nights  in 
talking  with  this  Father.  He  heard  what  the  Father 
had  to  say,  and  he  told  his  disciples  that  the  mes- 
sages which  he  brought  to  them  he  received  from 
the  Father.  He  had  no  fear  of  this  Father,  with 
whom  he  lived  in  these  intimate  and  close  relation- 
ships. He  never  calls  him  the  Great  King,  or  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel,  or  the  just  and  righteous  God, 
or  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  or  the  Al- 
mighty Power :  he  calls  him  Father.  I  think  only 
once  in  the  Gospels  does  he  address  him  as  God, 
and  that  is  when  he  dies  upon  the  cross,  and  even 
then  the  personal  relation  is  manifested  in  the  cry, 
"  My  God  !  my  God !  "  Jesus  Christ  beheved  that 
he  knew  the  Father,  that  he  lived  intimately  with 
the  Father,  that  he  had  friendship  with  the  Father, 
that  he  talked  to  the  Father,  that  the  Father  talked 
to  him.  He  said  in  one  of  his  recorded  prayers, 
"  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  heard  me.  And  I 
knew  that  thou  hearest  me  always."  ^  He  would  no 
more  have  discussed  the  question  whether  God  hears 
prayer  than  we  would  discuss  the  question  whether 
we  can  talk  with  our  friends.  He  was  as  sure  of 
personal  converse  with  the  Father  as  we  are  sure 
of  personal  converse  and  communion  with  our 
earthly  companions. 

1  John  zi,  41,  42. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        305 

And  this  Father  was  not  to  him  some  One  apart 
from  him,  some  One  who  issued  laws  which  he 
must  obey  if  he  would  escape  the  penalty  of  disobe- 
dience. The  will  of  his  Father  was  the  very  suste- 
nance of  his  life.  'He  wished  to  do  what  his  Father 
wished  him  to  do.  It  was  so  from  very  childhood. 
In  the  one  incident  that  we  have  recorded  about 
him  as  a  boy,  he  wondered  that  his  father  and  mo- 
ther should  have  looked  anywhere  else  for  him  in 
the  Holy  City,  with  its  architectural  splendor,  its 
shops,  its  processions,  its  crowds  of  people,  its  varied 
magnificence,  except  in  the  one  university  of  the 
city,  trying  to  find  out  his  Father's  wiU.  This  at 
the  beginning  of  his  life.  And  at  its  close  almost 
his  last  prayer  was.  Thy  wiU,  not  mine,  be  done.^  A 
husband  and  wife  grow  up  together  in  loving  friend- 
ship. As  the  years  go  by,  the  color  of  their 
eyes  and  the  very  form  of  their  features  seem  to 
change.  They  grow  more  and  more  into  even  the 
physical  likeness  of  each  other.  They  come  into 
such  closeness  of  relationship  that  the  wife  does 
not  need  to  hear  what  the  husband  has  to  say,  nor 
the  husband  what  the  wife  has  to  say,  but  each,  by 
a  kind  of  telegraphy,  perceives  the  wish  and  will 
of  the  other,  through  an  all-mastering  love.  These 
two  are  one.  So  Christ  was  one  with  the  Father, 
thinking  the  Father's  thoughts,  living  the  Father's 
life,  loving  the  Father,  talking  with  the  Father. 

Was  this  to  be  exceptional?  On  the  contrary, 
^  John  iv,  34 ;  Luke  ii,  49 ;  Matt,  zzvi,  42. 


306  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

what  he  claimed  for  himself  he  taught  his  disciples 
to  expect  for  themselves.  He  did  not  undertake  to 
tell  us  about  God ;  he  undertook  to  introduce  us 
to  God.  A  little  babe  does  not  know  anything 
about  the  mother,  but  she  knows  the  mother.  I 
may  not  know  anything  about  God,  but  according  to 
Jesus  Christ,  I  can  know  God.  For  Jesus  Christ 
taught  that  God,  who  is  his  Father,  is  also  our  Fa- 
ther. When  his  disciples  asked  him.  How  shall  we 
come  to  God?  he  replied  in  substance.  Tell  him 
the  things  you  want.  You  are  hungry,  ask  him  for 
bread ;  in  perplexity,  ask  him  to  guide  you ;  in 
temptation,  ask  him  to  make  you  strong,  that  you 
may  put  the  temptation  under  foot ;  you  have 
fallen,  ask  him  to  lift  you  up  and  put  you  on  your 
feet  again.  He  will  listen  to  you,  for  he  cares  for 
you.  Not  even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  and  he 
does  not  know  it ;  and  you  are  worth  a  great  deal 
more  to  him  than  sparrows.  Ask  your  father-heart : 
Will  you  not  give  good  gifts  to  your  children  ?  and 
do  you  not  think  that  He  will  give  good  gifts  to 
you  ?  Do  not  be  afraid  of  him ;  he  is  not  one  to  be 
afraid  of.  Have  you  done  wrong  ?  Still  do  not  be 
afraid  of  him.  Have  you  sinned  against  him?  Still 
do  not  be  afraid  of  him.  Have  you  sinned  against 
him  times  and  ways  without  number,  so  that  you  are 
no  more  worthy  to  be  called  his  son  ?  Still  do  not  be 
afraid  of  him.  To  illustrate  this  truth  Christ  told  the 
story  of  a  boy  who  sinned,  deliberately  sinned,  ran 
away  from  his  father,  spent  his  substance  in  riotous 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        307 

living  and  with  harlots,  and  never  thought  to  turn 
back  to  his  home  again  until  he  was  sick,  hungry, 
friendless,  and  famished ;  and  when  he  returned, 
the  father  uttered  no  word  of  reproach,  no  word  of 
condemnation,  but  welcomed  him,  saying,  I  have 
been  waiting  for  you ;  here  is  the  robe,  the  ring, 
the  thanksgiving  dinner.  This  was  Christ's  inter- 
pretation of  our  relation  to  the  Infinite  and  the 
Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed : 
that  we  may  be  one  with  this  Father ;  that  we  may 
have  our  will  attuned  in  accord  with  the  Father's 
wiU ;  that  we  may  live  in  fellowship  and  compan- 
ionship with  him ;  that  the  Father  offers  to  pour 
his  life  into  our  lives  that  we  may  live.  And  his 
last  prayer  for  his  disciples  was  "  That  they  all 
may  be  one ;  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us."  This  is  the 
summary  of  Christ's  teaching  concerning  God  :  The 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things 
proceed  is  a  loving  Person,  a  Father  who  cares  for 
his  children  ;  we  can  know  him ;  we  can  talk  with 
him  ;  we  can  get  answers  from  him ;  we  can  come 
into  fellowship  with  him  ;  we  can  live  in  the  kind 
of  unity  with  him  that  a  husband  lives  with  a  wife, 
or  a  friend  with  a  friend. 

lY.  Jesus  Christ's  teaching  respecting  the  future 

is  expressed  by  the  phrase,  "  Looking  for  the  blessed 

hope  and  appearing  of  the  glory  of  our  great  God 

and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  ^    This  glory  of  our  God 

1  So  in  the  Revised  Version. 


308  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  is  the  consummation  of 
Ms  kingdom  on  the  earth,  a  kingdom  which  Paul 
has  defined  as  "  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost."  i 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  hopeful 
teacher  in  history  than  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The 
times  were  indeed  dark  ;  moral  life  seemed  to  have 
died  out  of  the  human  heart ;  there  were  no  philoso- 
phers in  Greece,  only  sophists,  no  prophets  in  Pales- 
tine, only  scribes,  no  justice  in  Kome,  only  despotic 
power.  In  that  day,  to  that  people,  the  message  of 
Jesus  was,  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 
More  audacious  optimism  the  world  has  never  seen. 
And  a  large  part  of  his  teaching  was  concerned 
with  what  he  called,  and  what  his  people  had  called 
before  him,  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

The  phrase  "  kingdom  of  heaven  "  has  sometimes 
misled  men.  They  have  imagined  heaven  as  a  celes- 
tial sphere  apart  from  the  earth,  and  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  as  a  kingdom  in  that  celestial  sphere. 
But  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  not  a  kingdom  in 
heaven,  —  it  is  a  kingdom  which  is  to  come,  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven.  We  speak  of  the  "  American 
idea.*'  Whether  we  meet  it  in  France  or  Germany 
or  Italy  or  England,  still,  if  it  is  the  spirit  of  Ameri- 
canism, we  call  it  the  American  idea.  We  speak  of 
the  "  Republic  of  letters,'*  meaning  by  it  that  com- 
mon life  which  is  derived  from  a  common  experi- 
1  Rom.  xiv,  17. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST       309 

ence  and  a  common  enjoyment  of  literature.  So  the 
Master  spoke  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  not  as 
something  that  was  to  take  place  in  heaven,  but  as 
something  that  was  to  take  place  on  the  earth, 
which  was  interpreted  by  the  imagination  which 
men  have  of  heaven,  and  deriving  its  power  and  its 
spirit  from  heaven.  What  is  the  kingdom  of  the 
sun  ?  It  is  here  on  earth,  and  is  in  everything  that 
lives  and  moves.  It  sings  in  the  bird,  and  waits  in 
the  egg  not  yet  hatched ;  it  is  in  the  fragrant  blos- 
som and  in  the  bud  unopened ;  it  is  in  the  blades 
of  grass  upspringing,  and  in  the  germinant  seeds 
just  breaking  through  their  shell  in  the  darkness  of 
the  earth.  So  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  already 
here,  —  here,  as  the  day  is  here  when  the  sun  begins 
to  rise ;  here,  as  the  summer  is  here  when  spring 
begins  to  come  ;  here,  as  manhood  is  here  when  the 
babe  lies  in  the  cradle,  for  the  man  begins  when  he 
is  born.  The  kingdom  of  God  begins  when  it  is 
first  upon  the  earth,  and  it  is  first  on  the  earth 
when  the  spirit  of  righteousness  and  justice  and 
love  and  peace  is  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  is  work- 
ing its  way  into  the  institutions  of  men.  So  Christ 
said.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  among  you.  Look  for 
it  in  the  mother's  love,  in  the  hero's  sacrifice,  in  the 
patriot's  devotion  ;  look  for  it  in  the  honest  laborer, 
the  faithful  servant,  the  loyal  friend.  It  is  here; 
it  is  now. 

And  yet  it  is  only  here  in  the  beginning.    For 
Jesus  further  taught,  respecting  this  social  order, 


310  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

that  it  must  come  by  a  gradual  process  of  growth. 
The  kingdom  of  heaven,  he  said,  is  like  a  seed 
planted  in  the  ground,  which  groweth  secretly,  no 
man  knows  how :  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then 
the  full  com  in  the  ear.  Out  of  the  previous  con- 
dition will  grow  the  following  condition ;  out  of  the 
poorer  will  grow  the  better ;  out  of  the  cold  earth 
wiU  grow  the  fruit  for  the  food  of  men.  Christ  was 
an  evolutionist  long  before  the  word  evolution  was 
known.  He  never  defined  evolution ;  but  he  declared 
that  the  spiritual  laws  of  the  universe  are  the  same 
as  the  physical  laws  of  the  universe ;  that  as  the 
plant  grows  gradually  from  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
from  the  simpler  to  the  more  complex,  so  must  the 
kingdom  of  God  grow.  Little  by  little,  according 
to  him,  the  world  was  to  grow  better ;  by  no  sudden, 
no  revolutionary,  no  cataclysmic  force.  Those  of  us 
who  have  believed  in  the  Master  sometimes  grow 
weary  of  waiting,  and  wonder  if  the  dawn  wiU  ever 
come ;  but  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised  at  the  delay. 
He  gave  us  fair  warning.  Again  and  again  he  told 
his  disciples  that  the  process  would  be  a  long  and 
slow  one. 

But  not  only  is  this  kingdom  of  God  coming 
gradually ;  it  has  to  fight  its  way.  When  love 
comes  into  the  world,  will  not  every  man  wel- 
come love?  Will  not  all  men  throw  open  their 
doors  and  say.  Come  into  our  homes?  Will  not 
industry  open  its  doors  and  say,  Come  into  our 
factories  ?   Will  not  every  heart  say,  Come  in  and 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        311 

rule  in  me  ?  Alas,  no !  Love  finds  wrong,  and  fights 
against  wrong,  and  wrong  arms  itself  to  kill  love. 
Love  sets  itseK  in  battle  array  against  what  men 
call  vested  rights,  but  which  should  be  called  vested 
wrongs,  and  vested  wrongs  arm  themselves  to  cru- 
cify love.  It  was  so  then ;  it  always  has  been  so. 
And  Christ  foretold  it.  Do  not  expect,  he  says, 
that  you  will  be  better  treated  than  I  have  been. 
They  have  called  me  Beelzebub  ;  they  will  call  you 
Beelzebub.  They  have  persecuted  me ;  they  wiU 
persecute  you.  They  have  reviled  and  maligned 
me ;  they  will  revile  and  malign  you.  Woe  unto 
you  when  aU  men  speak  well  of  you.  If  that  time 
comes,  be  sure  you  are  not  doing  a  good  work  in 
the  world. 

He  told  us  that  the  kingdom  of  God  would  have 
to  battle  against  the  inertia  and  the  laziness  of 
men,  against  the  dull  content  that  says.  What  was 
good  enough  for  our  grandfathers  is  good  enough 
for  us ;  against  the  spirit  that  says,  What  has  been 
must  be.  The  kingdom  of  God,  he  said,  is  like  a 
little  leaven  —  the  ancient  yeast  —  that  is  put  into 
a  lump  of  dough.  It  takes  time  for  it  to  pervade 
the  lump  of  dough ;  time  for  it  to  change  the  char- 
acter of  the  lump  of  dough ;  and  it  can  do  it  only 
by  fermentation  and  agitation.  So  Christ  himself 
had  to  battle  against  this  inertia  in  his  own  dis- 
ciples. They  did  not  imderstand  him.  He  looked 
upon  them  sometimes  with  pathetic  sadness,  say- 
ing. Shall  the  Son  of  man  find  faith  on  the  earth 


312  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

when  he  returns  ?  How  long  have  I  been  with  you, 
and  you  have  not  understood  me  I  It  has  been  well 
said,  when  he  talked  in  parables  they  thought  he 
was  talking  literally ;  when  he  talked  literally  they 
thought  he  was  talking  in  parables.  He  had  to 
work  his  way  into  the  hearts  of  men  through  par- 
ables despite  them.  Having  ears,  he  said,  they  hear 
not ;  and  eyes,  they  see  not ;  and  hearts,  they  cannot 
understand.  It  was  so  then ;  it  is  so  now ;  it  wlQ  be 
so  tUl  the  end  is  achieved.  Truth  makes  its  way 
against  the  inertia  of  mankind. 

But  not  only  that,  it  makes  its  way  also  against 
open  opposition.  Christ  compared  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  to  wheat  sown  in  the  field  ;  and  when  men 
went  out  to  cultivate  the  wheat,  they  found  tares 
growing  by  the  side  of  the  wheat.  They  said.  Shall 
we  not  puU  up  the  tares  ?  No,  replied  the  house- 
holder ;  if  you  do,  you  wiU  uproot  good  wheat ;  let 
them  both  grow  together,  the  good  and  the  evil. 
That  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of 
God;  both  grow  together,  the  evil  with  the  good. 
Increased  civilization  brings  increased  temptations, 
and  increased  temptations  bring  increased  vices. 
Man  never  experienced  delirium  tremens  until 
some  one  invented  distilled  liquors.  There  could 
not  be  forgery  until  men  learned  how  to  write ;  nor 
murder  by  poisoning  until  men  learned  chemistry ; 
nor  embezzlement  until  there  was  a  credit  system. 
Evil  grows  with  the  good,  and  evil  fights  the  good, 
in  the  individual,  in  the  community. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        313 

One  other  thing  which  Jesus  Christ  taught, 
and  which  often  men  have  failed  to  note,  is  that 
God  seemingly  leaves  men  to  fight  the  battle  for 
themselves.  The  Master  said  in  one  of  his  parables 
that  the  kingdom,  of  heaven  is  like  a  nobleman 
going  away  into  a  far  country,  and  leaving  his 
estate  in  the  charge  of  his  stewards.  He  has  gone : 
I  want  instructions  how  to  pursue  my  work,  but 
there  is  no  telegraph  wire.  I  want  to  be  told  what  I 
shall  do,  but  there  is  no  mail.  I  want  authority. 
He  says :  You  have  it  in  yourself.  I  put  this  estate 
in  your  hands :  make  the  best  you  can  out  of  it. 
That  is  Christ's  own  figure  of  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

Sometimes  this  seems  to  us  hard :  sometimes  we 
wish  that  he  would  come  and  by  some  sudden  and 
wonderful  revelation  of  power  transform  society, 
put  an  end  to  the  injustice  and  wrong  of  life,  and 
put  righteousness  and  good-will  in  their  place ;  or 
at  least,  that  he  would  teU  us  exactly  what  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it.  But  this  he  does  not  do  ;  and  the 
Master  has  told  us  that  this  he  will  not  do.  He 
throws  the  responsibility  of  life  upon  us,  and  leaves 
us  to  fight  the  battle  out  and  reach  the  result  by 
our  own  strong  effort.  Strange!  and  yet  we  are 
learning  that  this  is  the  only  way.  We  are  learning 
in  our  colleges  and  higher  institutions  of  learning 
to  throw  the  responsibility  on  the  coUege  boys,  who 
used  to  be  watched,  with  tutors  and  guardians  and 
monitors,  to  see  that  they  did  their  work  aright. 


314  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

We  are  learning,  in  politics,  to  trust  the  govern- 
ment to  the  people,  and  not  to  a  few  men  watching 
over  the  people,  ruling  the  people,  or  acting  for  the 
people.  Does  Christ  not  say  that  he  is  with  us 
always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world?  Surely. 
Are  we  to  come  back  to  that  notion  of  an  absentee 
God  from  which  Christianity  has  led  us  out  into 
the  freedom  of  fellowship  with  the  living  God? 
Surely  not.  But  he  is  not  a  father  confessor  to 
whom  we  go  with  our  hard  problems  and  come 
away  with  solutions  ready  made.  His  presence  is 
not  to  solve  our  problems  for  us,  but  to  inspire  us 
to  solve  our  own ;  not  to  bear  our  burdens  for  us, 
but  to  strengthen  us  with  patience  that  we  may 
bear  our  own ;  not  to  take  our  temptations  from  us, 
but  to  fiU  us  with  a  courage  to  be  ourselves  con- 
querors and  more  than  conquerors  through  him  that 
loved  us.  He  holds  himself  apparently  apart.  No 
eye  sees  him  ;  no  ear  hears  his  voice ;  no  telegram 
from  him  brings  instructions ;  no  letter  brings  us 
word  what  we  are  to  do.  We  blunder  on,  but  by 
the  blundering  we  learn  wisdom;  by  failures  we 
hew  our  own  way  to  success ;  by  our  mistakes,  our 
errors,  yes,  even  by  our  very  sins,  we  grow  in  char- 
acter —  and  character  is  everything. 

This,  then,  is  what  Christ  said  about  the  future : 
There  is  a  new  regime  yet  to  come.  It  has  begun 
already.  Time  will  be  required  to  work  it  out.  It 
will  have  to  be  worked  out  by  yourselves,  against 
your  own  inertia,  against  your  own  blunders,  against 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        315 

opposition  of  others,  against  the  opposition  that  wiU 
spring  up  in  yourself. 

Did  he  say  nothing  of  personal  inunortality  ?  Yes ! 
but  much  less  than  men  have  sometimes  imagined. 
He  spoke  not  as  a  higher  animal  to  higher  animals, 
but  as  a  Son  of  God  to  sons  of  God.  He  told  his 
disciples  once  that  "he  that  liveth  and  belie veth  in  me 
shall  never  die."  There  is  no  dying,  only  transition, 
a  passing  through  the  curtain  to  the  other  realm  that 
is  close  at  hand.  He  told  his  disciples  that  this  world 
is  not  the  only  dwelling-place  in  the  universe ;  in  it 
are  many  dweUing-places,  and  there  wiU  be  a  place 
for  us  beyond.i  When  sometimes  the  worker  grows 
weary  and  the  soldier  faint-hearted,  or  his  little  life 
comes  toward  its  end,  and  he  looks  back  and  sees 
how  little  he  has  done  or  can  do  for  others  about 
him,  and  then  looks  forward  to  see  into  what  kind 
of  life  his  children  are  launched  and  in  what  kind 
of  conflict  they  are  to  take  part  —  then,  in  that  hour, 
he  may  take  comfort  from  the  reflection  that,  hav- 
ing done  his  little  here,  the  end  is  not,  but  there 
is  another  life  out  of  which  he  can  still  put  forth 
influences  for  the  redemption  and  the  upbuilding  of 
humanity.  And  when  the  grave  covers  all  that  he 
can  see  of  the  one  he  loved  and  lived  with  here  on 
earth,  he  then  can  take  hope  from  the  faith  that  it 
covers  only  what  he  saw,  and  that  that  which  he 
reaUy  loved  and  which  was  invisible,  —  the  love,  the 
faith,  the  patience,  the  long-suffering,  the  gentle- 
1  John  xi,  23-26,  xiv,  1-3. 


316  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

ness,  the    courage,  —  these   invisible   things   that 
made  her  what  she  was,  these  death  cannot  touch. 

"  We  know  in  part  and  we  prophesy  in  part  '* 
and  "  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly."  No  one  dis- 
ciple can  do  more  than  give  a  partial  interpretation 
of  a  teaching  so  fundamental  in  its  principles,  and 
capable  of  such  an  infinite  variety  of  applications, 
that  nineteen  centuries  of  study  have  not  yet  ex- 
hausted it;  and  no  disciple  can  portray  more  than 
one  aspect  of  a  character  so  infinite  in  its  per- 
fections that  after  nineteen  centuries  of  spiritual 
growth  it  stiU  remains  the  unapproached  ideal  foraU 
humanity.  This  chapter  is  not  and  does  not  pretend 
to  be  a  complete  answer  to  the  question,  What  is 
Christianity  ?  But  this  I  believe  may  be  safely  said : 
No  man  is  a  Christian  minister,  whatever  his  eccle- 
siastical ordination,  and  however  sound  his  theo- 
logical orthodoxy,  unless  he  possesses  the  spirit  of 
sobriety,  which  puts  the  inner  life  above  outward 
possessions,  and  measures  all  things  by  their  spirit- 
ual values ;  unless  he  possesses  the  spirit  of  right- 
eousness, which  counts  life  an  opportunity  for  ser- 
vice, and  no  life  weU  spent  which  is  not  spent  for 
others;  unless  he  possesses  the  spirit  of  godliness, 
which  knows  the  living  God  as  a  Companion,  a 
Friend,  a  Helper  and  Saviour ;  unless  he  possesses 
the  spirit  of  hopefulness  for  himself  and  for  his 
fellow  men,  which  enkindles  for  them  and  in  them 
an  exhaustless  and  expectant  aspiration.    And  he 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        317 

is  a  Christian  minister,  whatever  his  church  and 
whatever  his  philosophy,  if  he  possesses  this  spirit 
and  gives  himself  to  the  endeavor  to  impart  it  to  his 
fellow  men.  For  Christianity  is  such  a  perception 
of  the  Infinite  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ  as  tends 
to  produce  Christlikeness  of  character,  and  a  Chris- 
tian minister  is  one  who,  inspired  by  that  percep- 
tion, imparts  that  Christlikeness  of  life  to  those  to 
whom  he  ministers. 


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